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A HISTORY OF 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN 

LITERATURE 



JOHN MILTON, AT THE AGE OF TEN 

From the painting by Cornelius Janssen. Reproduced, by special permission, from the orig| 
in the library of J. Pierpont Morgan. 



A HISTORY OF 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN 

LITERATURE 



BY 

WALTER S. HINCHMAN, A.M. 

Author of "Lives of" Great Writers," "William of 
Normandy," etc. 

Master of English in Groton School 




NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 
1918 



<& 



A* 



Copyright, 1915, 1918, by 
The Century Co. 



AUG kl 1918 



©CLA503170 



r 



PREFACE 



In writing this book the author has sought to lay stress 
on the facts of the history of English literature, rather 
than on the interpretation of it. The need of the high 
school pupil would seem to be, first of all, the chief facts, 
given in a continuous narrative, with important move- 
ments, so far as is possible, told in terms of men rather 
than of ideas. Though a certain amount of aesthetic 
comment, implied if not stated, is inevitable in any sur- 
vey of literature which is more than a dictionary of 
names, the intention of the present writer has been to 
place the emphasis on men, on what they did, and on how 
they came to do it — not on what the world thinks of 
their performance. By such a method the space gained 
is considerable ; there are important facts which can- 
not be included in a small volume if it is half-full of 
" interpretation." 

In selecting authors for inclusion the writer has tried 
to keep in mind the needs of the high school pupil. De- 
tailed mention, therefore, has been given only to those 
authors whose works the pupil is likely to read. Names 
of secondary importance to such a pupil have been either 
left to the chronological lists or given only brief mention 
in the text. Much space has thus been gained for care- 
ful treatment of the important figures. In the chrono- 
logical tables, together with the lists of books for reading, 



vi Preface 

advanced students will find suggestions for extended 
study. 

The Appendix contains a chapter on " Literary 
Forms " and one on " Versification. " Hitherto these 
subjects have usually been confined to rhetoric books. 
Since we do not teach our boys and girls to write epics 
but to read them, the proper place for such information 
would seem to be a hand-book of literature. 

The writer takes this opportunity of thanking many 
friends to whom he is under obligation for helpful sug- 
gestions; especially: Professor William T. Brewster, of 
Columbia University; Mr. D. O. S. Lowell, of Roxbury 
Latin School, Boston ; Mr. Charles S. Thomas, of New- 
ton High School, Massachusetts; Professor James F. 
Hosic, of Chicago Normal College ; and his colleague, 
Mr. Eric Parson. 

Groton, Mass., 
March, 1915. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

J The Anglo-Saxons. The English people and their lan- 
guage — Old English literature — Poetry — Prose — 
Chronology — Books and suggestions for reading . . 3 

II From the Conquest to Chaucer. The foreign period — 
Middle English before Chaucer — The Romances — 
Wiclif — Piers Plowman — Chronology — Books and 
suggestions for reading 29 

III The Age of Chaucer. Chaucer — Other poets — Bal- 

lads — Malory and Caxton — Chronology — Books 
and suggestions for reading 50 

IV The Renaissance. The Time — The Revival of Learn- 

ing — Discoveries — The Renaissance in England ■ — 
Chronology — Books and suggestions for reading . . 7,3 

V The Age of Elizabeth. Spenser — Other poets — 
Shakespeare — Euphuism — Translators and chron- 
iclers — The early drama — The Elizabethan theater 

— Shakespeare's fore-runners — Shakespeare — Bacon 
and prose — The Bible — Chronology — Books and 
suggestions for reading 87 

VI The Seventeenth Century. The Age of Ben Jonson — 
Jonson — Other dramatists — The lyric poets — The 
Puritan Age — Milton — Bunyan — Other writers — 
The Age of Dryden — Dryden — Chronology — Books 
and suggestions for reading 162 

VII The Eighteenth Century. The Age of Pope — Swift 

— Addison — Pope — Defoe — The Age of Dr. John- 
son — Johnson — Goldsmith — Burke — The Novel — 

vii 













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viii Contents 

Vlil T~z Age of R;^:::^, Scot: - ^ 
• Coleridge - La:nh — Byron — Shelley - 

suggestions for reading 280 

cay — Lor.CiUSiOr. — (_n ror. 0.0 gy — .dooks aua 5.'. gi'es- 
tions for reading 342 

Appendix. 

Literary Forms 410 

English Verse 421 

General Bhliogra; hy 433 



A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATTR 



H 



CHAPTER PAGE 

The Revolutionary Period — Franklin — Other Writ- 
ers of the Revolutionary Period — The R::nan:i:ists 



Whittier — Lowell — Other New England Writers — 
Writers Outside New England — Books an. 1 sngges- 

III The Turn ■:■? the Cexgvpy. Bret Harte — C'entens — 
Jther Writers — Fiction — History an:' Essay — 
Fietry — A ldi:ic::al Writers — Conclusion — F-coks 
and suggestions : :r reading -j2 

Che: n; locoes : c: 

Ix: ex 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 
John Milton, at the age of ten. From the painting by Janssen. 

(Full Page in Color) Frontispiece 

Stonehenge 4 

Facsimile of the first page of "Beowulf." (Full Page) . . . 11 
Whitby Abbey 19 

King Alfred. Statue at Winchester by Hamo Thornycroft. 

(Full Page) . 23 

Glastonbury Abbey 37 

Tintagel Head, Cornwall * 39 

John Wiclif 42 

Malvern Hills 44 

Geoffrey Chaucer. From a painting by J. Houbraken. (Full 

Page) .53 

Canterbury Cathedral , 55 

The Tabard Inn, Southwark 60 

The Canterbury Pilgrims 62 

Effigy of John Gower, St. Saviour's, Southwark 64 

Sherwood Forest 65 

Major Oak, Sherwood Forest 66 

Caxton and Edward IV. From an old print. (Full Page) . 79 

Sir Thomas More 81 

Queen Elizabeth 88 

Edmund Spenser 90 

St. Michael's Mount, Land's End ,.91 

The Death of Sir Philip Sidney .98 

Interior of the Fortune Theater, London, Built in 1599 . . , 104 

Ground Plan of Elizabethan Theater 112 

ix 



x Illustrations 

PAGE 

William Shakespeare. Frontispiece to M First Folio " Edition. 

{Full Page) 121 

Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford 123 

Grammar School, Stratford 124 

Stratford Church and River Avon 128 

Setting for the Ship Scene in "The Tempest'' 142 

Francis Bacon. From the portrait by Van Somen (Full Page) 147 

Ben Jonson 164 

Francis Beaumont 166 

John Fletcher 168 

Robert Herrick 169 

John Milton. Faithorne Portrait. (Full Page) 175 

Milton's Cottage. Chalfont St. Giles 1S1 

Ludlow Castle 184 

Milton Dictating to his Daughters 187 

John Bunyan. From a drawing by Robert White. {Full Page) 193 

The Market Cross. Elstow 195 

Jeremy Taylor 197 

Isaac Walton 198 

John Dryden. From a painting by Sir G. Kneller. {Full Page) 201 

Dryden's Birthplace, Aldwinkle 204 

The Gardens at Versailles 215 

Scene in a Cottee House 216 

Jonathan Swift 220 

Joseph Addison 224 

Magdalen College. Oxford 225 

Addison's Walk, Oxford 226 

Richard Steele 228 

Alexander Pope. From the painting by Jervas. {Pull Page) . 231 

Defoe in the Pillory 240 

Samuel Johnson 244 

Dr. Johnson and His " Club " 249 

James Boswell 251 



Illustrations xi 

PAGE 

Henry Fielding - 260 

Stoke Pogis Churchyard 263 

William Covvper . .- 265 

Robert Burns 267 

Birthplace of Burns, Alloway 269 

Burns Monument, Edinburgh 272 

Sir Walter Scott. From a painting by Landseer. (Full Page) 287 

Abbotsford 290 

Ellen's Isle, Loch Katrine 293 

William Wordsworth. After a sketch from life by Wyon. 

(Full Page) 295 

"Striding Edge," Helvellyn 298 

Dove Cottage, Grasmere 300 

Daffodils, Near Rydal Mount 302 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 305 

Christ Hospital 306 

Charles Lamb 312 

Lord Byron 316 

Newstead Abbey 318 

Percy Bysshe Shelley 323 

Shelley's Sophocles 325 

John Keats 328 

Thomas DeQuincey 333 

Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. (Full Page) 345 

Alfred Tennyson. (Full Page) 349 

Robert Browning 358 

Thomas Babington Macaulay 365 

Thomas Carlyle. From a photograph by John Patrick. (Full 

Page) 369 

Birthplace of Carlyle, Ecclefechan 371 

John Ruskin 376 

Ruskin's Grave, Coniston 379 

Matthew Arnold 382 



xii Illustrations 

PAGE 

Charles Dickens. From a painting by David Maclise. (Full 

Fage) ; . #7 

William Makepeace Thackeray . . . , 390 

Thackeray's Grave, Kensal Green 392 

George Eliot 394 

Robert Louis Stevenson 398 

The Manse, Colinton 399 

Historical Chart 409 

Literary Map of England 432 

View of Minute Man, Concord Bridge 438 

New York in 1667 441 

Early View of Harvard College 443 

Jonathan Edwards 446 

View of Independence Hall 448 

Benjamin Franklin 450 

Sunnyside, Irving's Home on the Hudson 457 

William Cullen Bryant 461 

Edgar Allan Poe 464 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 474 

House of Seven Gables 479 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 481 

Whittier Homestead at Amesbury 485 

James Russell Lowell 488 

Walt Whitman . 496 

Cabin in which Lincoln was born ............ 498 

Mark Twain in front of his boyhood home 506 

William Dean Howells 510 

John Burroughs 513 

James W r hitcomb Riley 514 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 



A HISTORY OF ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 

CHAPTER I 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS 

The English People and their Language. When 
our Anglo-Saxon x ancestors rowed up the English riv- 
ers and took possession of what soon came to be called 
England, or land of the Angles, they found a consider- 
able civilization, but they were too ignorant to value it. 
They drove the native inhabitants, of Celtic stock, stead- 
ily westward into Wales and Ireland, absorbing little of 
either their customs or their language. What material 
the early Britons gave to English literature came at a 
later date, when English poets wrote about the British 
Arthur, or Lear, or Cymbeline. The history of Eng- 

1 Anglo-Saxon. This name sprang from the fact that the Angles 
and the Saxons were chief among the " Low German " tribes which 
invaded Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries. It must not be 
supposed, however, that they came as one people or spoke one dia- 
lect. " Saxons " was the name often used in their own time by for- 
eigners to denote roughly all the commingling tribes, but the land 
and the language were named after the Angles. In this book " An- 
glo-Saxon " will be used to denote all the Low German settlers 
in Britain, and " Old English " to denote their language and litera- 
ture. 

3 



A History of English Literature 



lish literature begins, therefore, with the invading An- 
glo-Saxons. 

The Anglo-Saxons were the chief ancestors of Eng- 
lishmen in blood, customs, language, and literature. 
Their rough strength, directness, and sincerity, though 
modified in countless ways through all the years since 
the landing of Hengist in 449. have persisted as the 
backbone of English character: and this character, sof- 
tened to a necessary flexibility by foreign influence, 

has developed a great 
nation and a great 
literature. It is impor- 
tant, therefore, to know 
something of the life 
and -wrings of these 
early settlers before we 
study the literature of 
their descendants. 
The Anglo-Saxons 
took readily to simple agricultural life, but when they 
left their German homes they were a primitive people, 
used to warfare, hunting, and warlike sports. Further- 
more, the hardships of long winters made them ter- 
rible to the city-dwelling Britons. Great " smiters in 
battle," strong eaters and drinkers, they were a vigor- 
ous folk. They lacked the faery fancy of the Celt 
and the sunny laughter of the Roman, but they far 
surpassed those races in earnestness and integrity. The 
picture given by Tacitus of the early Germans is sub- 
stantially true of the Anglo-Saxons : they were hos- 
pitable, loyal, fearless, held women in respect, and had a 




STONEHENGE, PREHISTORIC RUINS ON 
SALISBURY PLAIX 



The Anglo-Saxons 5 

peculiar, highly developed sense of the freeman's rights. 
These characteristics, coupled with their physical stam- 
ina, gave them the strength to absorb countless outside 
influences and yet remain, at heart, the same. The 
Danes invaded the east coast from the eighth to the 
tenth centuries and became English; the Normans came 
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and turned English; 
and to-day English speech and customs are reaching the 
remotest corners of the world. Unable to develop 
national government, too inflexible to grow with the 
changing world, the Anglo-Saxons needed outside influ- 
ence, such as the Norman conquest, but through all the 
changes of the English nation, their indestructible vital- 
ity perpetuated the main Anglo-Saxon characteristics. 

The language of the Anglo-Saxons was like their char- 
acter — rough, direct, vigorous. When they came to 
England, and for many centuries afterwards, their speech 
was very different from modern English — how differ- 
ent may be seen by comparing a line or two of their great 
epic poem, Beowulf, with a literal English translation : 

Old English : Hwaet ! we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum 

Translation: Ho! we of the Spear-Danes in yore days 

Old English: £>eod-cyninga fcrym gefrunon. 

Translation : Of the folk-kings the fame have heard. 

After a little study, however, it becomes apparent that, 
roughly speaking, this Old English speech was the father 
of Chaucer's, Shakespeare's, and Wordsworth's English. 
The language, nevertheless, was not "fixed" in diction- 
aries, as it is to-day ; it was split into many dialects ; it was 
greatly influenced by contact with French and Latin ; and, 



6 A History of English Literature 

finally, it kept changing through a period (500-1500) 
nearly three times as long as the period of so-called 
Modern English. If we take the trouble to follow it 
through all its shiftings, to note the gradual disappear- 
ance of inflections and the inroads from foreign tongues, 
we realize that for every hundred words we speak, eighty 
or ninety are of Old English origin. Though a large pro- 
portion (about 75 per cent.) of the words in an English 
dictionary is of foreign origin, many of these words are 
unusual, such as scientific terms ; while the names of com- 
mon objects, such as man, house, tree, the most common 
verbs, such as swim, run, zcork, the pronouns, preposi- 
tions, and conjunctions, — the main stock of our speech, 
in short, — come direct from the Old English. But Old 
English words were too limited, especially in expressing 
abstractions, for new needs. The Anglo-Saxons, for in- 
stance, had no word to represent adequately what we 
mean by the words government and nation, so, as the need 
arose, their descendants took such words from French and 
Latin. Again, they made no distinction between sheep 
in the pasture and sheep dressed for the table till they 
learned from the Norman French to say mutton. A few 
foreign words of all sorts, such as shawl from Persia and 
tobacco from America, have come into the language at 
different times, usually through trade, but the two great 
additions are French and Latin. French came in first 
through the Normans, but chiefly in the time of the 
Plantagenets, 1 when the English Kings held large domains 
in France and when literature on both sides of the Chan- 
nel was largely French. Occasional Latin words, espe- 
1 1 154-1399. 



The Anglo-Saxons 7 

cially in connection with the church, have crept into 
English through the whole period of English history, 
but the great bulk entered the language either in the time 
of the Tudor s, 1 when all Europe was interested in the 
classics, or, later, along with Greek, in the nineteenth 
century, to supply the needs of science and invention. 
It must be remembered, of course, that foreign words 
got into literature long before they got into the lan- 
guage of the common people, and that the great body 
of Englishmen, till they began to read in comparatively 
recent times, used a far greater proportion of Old 
English than we should find in the writings of a 
learned man such as Milton; yet even Milton's works 
contain less than 30 per cent, of words of foreign origin. 
Thus we find that a writer, like Bunyan or Wordsworth, 
using the simple language of the common people, employs 
words almost wholly of Old English origin. 

The foreign additions, then, so persistent was the 
Anglo-Saxon speech, enriched, rather than destroyed the 
old language. A -familiar way in which we speak of 
the English language is to compare it to a tree, of which 
the trunk is Old English, while the branches are many 
of them grafted on from other tongues; and, to carry 
the figure further, the wonderful blossoms and fruit of 
such a tree combine the strength of the parent stem with 
the variety and rich beauty of the grafted limbs. If our 
Bible were not written chiefly in Old English words 
(about 90 per cent.), it would not be so strong and di- 
rect as it is, but if it were wholly Old English, it would 
lack much of its sonorous beauty. 

1 1485-1603. 



8 A History of English Literature 

OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms embraced a great race, 
dominant in England for six centuries; and in their lit- 
erature we find a various life reflected. It is important 
to realize that their poems are not a succession of mourn- 
ful dirges, as many have supposed. " They tell tales, 
drink the mead, race horses across the plain, ply bow 
and spear, are loyal to their lords, defiant of their foes, 
hungry for honor; moreover, when they see death ap- 
proaching, they face it with solemnity — if pagans, with 
fortitude and calm resignation; if Christians, with godly 
fear and joyful hope. Not savages these, not mere 
drunken churls, not cravens continually occupied with 
images of the charnel-house, but men who challenge our 
respect, and deserve it." x Yet, various and interest- 
ing as Old English literature is, it is more serious than 
the writings of any other nation. " Night is the clutch 
of the grave," " Loathly is that earth-house and grim to 
dwell in," — such melancholy expressions abound. War, 
seafaring, and death, the chief subjects of the pagan 
and secular poems, prompt the singers more often to 
sadness than to mirth; and the Christian poems, written 
in the same serious tone, are pervaded by a like earnest- 
ness. This seriousness, however, is so direct and sin- 
cere and the language which expresses it is so vivid, that 
it often strikes, like Hebrew poetry, into sublimity. To 
understand the spirit of Old English poetry is to under- 
stand in large measure English Puritanism and the 

1 From Translations of Old English Poetry, preface, vi, by Cook 
and Tinker. 



The Anglo-Saxons 9 

" high seriousness " of such poets as Milton and Words- 
worth. 

OLD ENGLISH POETRY. 

In looking back over the literature of the past we 
must not forget that it was written by individuals, as the 
books of to-day are written, with no thought of the 
pigeon-holes into which students would later try to force 
it. It must be remembered, moreover, that the people of 
Alfred's time did not think the same kind of thoughts or 
speak quite the same language as the people of Offa's 
time. In other words, we must not lose the perspective of 
a great and various literature extending over six cen- 
turies. In the case of the Anglo-Saxons, however, it will 
be convenient and fairly accurate to divide Old English 
poetry, roughly speaking, into that which dealt with pagan 
and secular subjects and that which dealt with religious 
subjects. 

Beowulf. The earliest Old English poetry, as is com- 
mon among primitive tribes, was oral — war songs and 
tales of their heroes, for the most part, sung at their 
feasts by the scop, or gleeman. From these stories and 
songs arose their epic poems, eventually written out by 
individuals, rewritten by others, and changed till the 
anonymous form in which they have come down to us is 
probably of much later date than the original. Of most 
of these poems we possess only small fragments, but 
Beowulf, the national Old English epic, has been handed 
down almost entire. It was written probably near the 
end of the seventh century, 1 but the story was brought 

1 Our oldest manuscript of Beowulf is a copy, probably with some 
changes, written in the tenth century. 



10 A History of English Literature 



TRANSLATION OF THE FIRST PAGE OF BEOWULF. 
SEE FACSIMILE OPPOSITE. 

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings 

of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, 

we have heard, and what honor the Athelings won ! 

Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes. 

from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, 

awing the earls. Since erst he lay 

friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him : 

for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, 

till before him the folk, both far and near, 

who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, 

gave him gifts : a good king he ! 

To him an heir was afterward born, 

a son in his halls, whom heaven sent 

to favor the folk, feeling their woe 

that erst they had lacked an earl for leader 

so long a while ; the Lord endowed him, 

the Wielder of Wonder, with world's renown. 

Famed was this Beowulf : far flew the boast of him, 

son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands. 

So becomes it a youth to quit him well 

with his father's friends, by fee and gift, . . . 

Translation by F. B. Gum mere. 




IYET PE tAR-% 

W^tn ^-i^tt*iioii--iiuact ^etin^af elict 
pnem^ott* ope fepl& foepns fcea^e-? 
%girt^ptti mone^u : m^|fi«ti m&lSa fart i 
o^tol* %fo^6r topi *3^^Sa»i ^^-f^V' 

o^ilnwm tuiie- l)*|uut {coli^ ^wtlwih* 
<££c€^ cenne& ?&»>$ m^aafu&uat bane 5^ ; 

Wile- mm-kq". I ip||ia^^yul^^c}^ |^fctl <to ^ 

pji^I^ ane tori ^i^^- -^^^ti^ f^ \^"-- ' 



Copyright photo. Emery Walker, London, E. C, 
FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF " BEOWULF." (MANUSCRIPT IN THE 
BRITISH MUSEUM). SEE TRANSLATION OPPOSITE 



The Anglo-Saxons 13 

over from the Continent and deals with heroes who lived 
along the North German and Danish coasts. Beowulf 
was a historical person, nephew of Chochilaicus (Hyge- 
lac in the poem), king of the Geats, but, like Siegfried, 
Hercules, and Rustum in their respective races, he is 
vaguely identified in legend with spring and all that is 
good in triumph over darkness and the powers of evil. 
To the Anglo-Saxons in their forests and fens the long 
dark winter was a terrible foe, and it they identified with 
Grendel, a monster of the fen. Here is the story : 

Hrothgar, king of the Danes, has built a great mead-hall, 
or palace, wherein he and his followers sit down to feast. 
But Grendel, angry at the sounds of joy in the mead-hall, 
comes by night over the " mist-covered moor-fens " and carries 
off thane after thane to the sea-bottom den where he and his 
mother dwell. 

Untrod is their home ; 
by wolf-cliffs haunt they and windy headlands, 
fenways fearful, where flows the stream 
from mountains gliding to gloom of the rocks, 
underground flood. Not far is it hence 
in measure of miles that the mere expands, 
and o'er it the frost-bound forest hanging, 
sturdily rooted, shadows the wave. 
By night is a wonder weird to see, 
fire on the waters. So wise lived none 
of the sons of men, to search those depths ! 
Nay, though the heath-rover, harried by dogs, 
the horn-proud hart this holt should seek, 
long distance driven, his dear life first 
on the brink he yields ere he brave the plunge 
to hide his head : 't is no happy place ! 
Thence the welter of waters washes up 
wan to welkin when winds bestir 



14 A History of English Literature 

evil storms, and air grows dusk, 
and the heavens weep. 1 

For twelve years no one is found who can overcome the 
monster. Then Beowulf comes over the sea from Geatland 2 
to help Hrothgar. See the young warrior and his comrades 
march up the street to Hrothgar's hall: 

Stone-bright the street: it showed the way 

to the crowd of clansmen. Corselets glistened 

hand- forged, hard; on their harness bright 

the steel ring sang, as they strode along 

in mail of battle, and marched to the hall. 

There, weary of ocean, the wall along 

they set their bucklers, their broad shields, down, 

and bowed them to bench : the breastplates clanged, 

war-gear of men; their weapons stacked, 

spears of the sea-farers stood together, 

gray-tipped ash : that iron band 

was worthily weaponed ! 3 

The " battle-brave " Beowulf, with " thirty men's heft of grasp 
in the gripe of his hand," is welcomed by the Danish king, 
who at bedtime leaves the hall in charge of the hero and his 
fourteen companions. At length Grendel approaches, more 
furious than ever. First he kills one of the sleeping com- 
panions, then turns towards the leader, who, without weapons, 
grapples with him in a hand to hand struggle. Before long 
Beowulf with a mighty wrench tears Grendel's arm from its 
socket, and the monster, roaring with rage and pain, makes off 
to his den, where he dies. 

But the joy of the Dane-men is short-lived, for the follow- 
ing night Grendel's mother comes to avenge his death. When 

1 Translation by F. B. Gummere. 

2 Perhaps in Southern Sweden, perhaps in Jutland. 

3 Translation by F. B. Gummere. 



The Anglo-Saxons 15 

she has made off with one of Hrothgar's followers, Beowulf is 
called to the rescue. Armed this time, he follows her over 
moorland and through dark waters till, after a fierce struggle 
in her sea-bottom den, he slays her and, cutting off the dead 
Grendel's head, swims back with it in triumph. 

Later, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats. After fifty years 
of happy rule, he learns that his own country is troubled by a 
dragon. The old champion goes forth to kill the monster, but, 
though he succeeds in slaying the dragon, he is himself killed 
in the struggle. His grief-stricken people burn his body with 
great ceremony and raise a huge barrow on the shore to his 
memory. 

Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland, 

for their hero's passing his hearth-companions : 

quoth that of all the kings of earth, 

of men he was mildest and most beloved, 

to his kin the kindest, keenest for praise. 1 

But a recital of a mere outline of the story of Beowulf, 
with scattered quotations, gives no picture of the beauty 
and setting of the poem. It should be read entire if one 
would appreciate its simplicity and vigor and carry in the 
memory a true image of the warlike race that gave it 
birth. 

Of the fragments of Old English epics, The Attack on 
Finnsburg, of which about fifty lines remain, gives a 
vivid picture of battle: "The sword-light gleamed as 
if Finn's whole burg were blazing with fire." Finnsburg 
is clearly closer than Beowulf to the original minstrel 
form: it moves breathlessly, as if the author were com- 
posing on his feet, while the author of Beowulf obviously 
had time to reflect and adorn. Another of the minstrel- 

1 Translation by F. B. Gummere. 



« 



16 A History of English Literature 

tales is Widsith, or the " Far-Wanderer," in which the 
scop tells of the people and kings he has met in his 
travels. It bears the distinction of being the earliest 
piece of Old English writing that we have. Stirring nar- 
rative poems, not of this early epic group, but telling of 
the contest with the Danes in the tenth century, are The 
Battle of Brunanburgh 1 and The Battle of Maldon, both 
inserted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 2 

Other verses that belong in the division of secular 
poems are The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruined 
City, and Deor's Lament. These pieces are not narra- 
tives; they express rather the thoughts and feelings of 
their authors. In The Wanderer the subject is the 
cruelty of Wyrd, goddess of Fate; in The Seafarer it is 
the call of the sea and the necessity of keeping on in 
adversity; in The Ruined City it is a picture of a deserted 
British town, with its broken baths; in Deors Lament it 
is the hard luck and somewhat wistful courage of the 
writer, an outcast minstrel. Deor reminds himself of 
others brave in adversity and concludes each stanza with 
the consolation : 

That he surmounted; so this may I. 

It is more of a personal, lyric poem than the others, the 
only poem in Old English, in fact, with a regular refrain. 
The Seafarer gives in Part I a vivid picture of life on a 
winter sea : 

I have suffered; have borne tribulations; explored in my ship 
Mid the terrible rolling of waves, habitations of sorrow. 



1 Translated by Tennyson, in a vigorous but not literal version. 

2 See p. 25. 



The Anglo-Saxons 17 

The hail flew in showers about me; and there I heard only 
The roar of the sea, ice-cold waves, and the song of the swan; 
For pastime the gannets' cry served me; the kittiwakes' chatter 
For laughter of men; and for mead drink the call of the sea- 
mews! 1 

Yet, in spite of the hardships, something still calls the 
seafarer to the sea : 

Now my spirit uneasily turns in its chamber, 

Now wanders forth over the tide, o'er the home of the whale, 

To the ends of the earth — and comes back to me. Eager and 
greedy 

The lone wanderer screams, and resistlessly drives my soul on- 
ward, 

Over the whale path, over the tracts of the sea. 2 

It is the same eager, exploring spirit that through all 
time 

Drives our English hearts of oak 

Seaward round the world. 

And the tenacity and courage which the author of The 
Seafarer urges in Part II we find echoing down through 
English poetry to the present day, echoing in such 
familiar lines as Arnold's 

On, to the bound of the waste, 
On, to the City of God ! 

and Browning's 

Cry " speed, — fight on, fare ever 
There as here ! " 

1 Translation by LaMotte Iddings, in Translations from Old Eng- 
lish Poetry, Cook and Tinker. 

2 Translation by LaMotte Iddings, in Translations from Old Eng- 
lish Poetry, Cook and Tinker. 



18 A History of English Literature 

Even a brief account of Old English poetry may not 
omit mention of the Riddles, Gnomic Verses, or proverbs, 
and Charms. The Charms, some of them very old, are 
quaint relics of superstition. Here is a charm for swarm- 
ing bees : 

Take earth, throw it up with thy right hand from under 
thy right foot, and say : 

I take earth under foot, I have found it. 

Verily earth avails against every creature, 

And against mischief and mindlessness, 

And against the great tongue of man. 

Throw dust over them when they swarm, and say: 

Sit ye, victor dames, sink to earth, 

Xever to fly wild to the wood ! 

Be as mindful of my good 

As every man is of food and estate. 1 

Religious Poetry. Old English religious poetry is 
almost as old as the secular poetry and exceeds it in bulk. 
Oedmon, the first of the religious poets, is the earliest 
Old English writer whose name we know. About 660, 
or less than a century after the introduction of Chris- 
tianity into England, he began to make his religious 
poems and paraphrases of the Bible, and for a century 
after him religious poetry flourished in Northumbria. 
Csedmon was a poor cowherd in the monastery of Hild 
at Whitby, and, knowing nothing of making verses, he 
was long accustomed to leave the table at feasts when 
all sang in turn. One night, however, Bseda tells, an 
angel appeared to him in a vision and commanded him 

1 Translation by W. O. Stevens, in Translations from Old English 
Poetry, Cook and Tinker. 



to sing 



The Anglo-Saxons 19 

He protested that he could not sing, but the 
angel replied, " No matter, you are to sing " ; and, when 
Caedmon asked what he should sing, the angel told him 
to " sing the beginning of created things." To his sur- 
prise the cowherd found, on awaking, that he could sing 
and make verses, whereupon for the rest of his life he 

















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WHITBY ABBEY 



made religious poems and was held in great honor at 
Whitby. It is not certain what poems were really the 
work of Gedmon, but paraphrases of parts of the Bible 
were long ascribed to him, though scholars now incline 
to believe that the poems belong to a later date. More 
authentic are the few verses called Ccedmon's Hymn. 

The other great name among Old English religious 
poets is Cynewulf. 1 He lived, probably also in North- 
umbria, about a century after Caedmon. Cynewulf tells 

1 Pronounced Kin-e-wttlf. 



A Hisi 



::::er::esses 
rrs:e *' H 



Englisn L::e:a:u:e 

:. he -;vas " r-i-ry : : rris :e 
:ef *.v::h a.r-.x:e;:e5. '::'.:.:;: •; 
:e:: he v.- as :' i 7t: : ^::.:::ti 
free. : i my heart, 

:g '.v:i::h I have r :::e ;:v: 



his, : : r.:;. :: ".:: ~. r 

:ve:: ir. :he :e: 
:a:;y :: :he R:: 
.5 r'earhv ah :he 



'.vhich :he Sav.ur vras :ru::hec 
_ r ; : v.'h: :h : ears a 5:rh::::~ rese:::: 
worthy of Cynewulf . It tell 

:: 5.v :.he ::: 55 "-'.:::':: a::e: 



..-.. 



_ 



:r: 



:e :::e :r. 
ra 0/ the 



: :: t :rv ::~x: :r_. 
God," says the 



iherefcre r. :"■ :.:.. :: rr_a : esrv I :: t~ 



:-: 



If :-li 

"•"is I 1 ;-.::::sh"i^: :he rruhts: 

The most abhorred by men, ere I for man 

- 7 : : ~ Z~ e vru If 5 £ 



The Anglo-Saxons 21 

Had opened the true way of life. So, then 
The Prince of Glory, Guardian of heaven, 
Above all other trees exalted me. 1 

Moved by the vision to prayer, the poet is consoled and 
restored to hope. 

Of the other poems in this division, Judith, which tells 
of the terrible death of Holofernes, is at once the most 
striking and the most characteristically Anglo-Saxon. 
Hear the Old English delight in the battle ; it is a Hebrew 
story and " the battle is the Lord's," but the zest for red 
war is true Anglo-Saxon: 

They who yet lived fled from the foemen's arms, 
The band of Hebrews followed on their track, 
Honored with victory, enriched with fame. 
The Lord God, the Almighty, graciously 
Gave them His help. They labored piously, 
The famous heroes, with bright swords to cut 
A war-path through the press of evil ones. 2 

Old English Verse-form. Practically all Old Eng- 
lish poetry is in a peculiar, swinging measure. Each 
line has two parts, with two strong stresses (or accents) 
in each part, and with no fixed number of unaccented 
syllables. The stressed syllables, far more strongly ac- 
cented than in modern poetry, have beginning-rime (or 
alliteration), 3 and there is no end-rime. There is, as 

1 Translation by LaMotte Iddings, in Translations from Old Eng- 
lish Poetry, Cook and Tinker. 

2 Translation by Henry Morley, in Morley' s English Writers. 

3 The third accent, or the first in the second half of the line, is 
called the " rime-giver " ; it and either or both of the accents in the 
first half begin with a vowel or the same consonant. The fourth 



22 A History of English Literature 

Dr. Gummere puts it, " a sort of irregular but powerful 
leap to the rhythm. It is all weight, force, — no stately, 
even, measured pace, as in Greek epic verse. Our old 
meter inclines, like our ancestors themselves, to violence. 
It is at its best in describing the din of war, the uncertain 
swaying of warriors in battle ; — a verse cadenced by the 
crashing blows of sword and ax." x Different as it is 
from modern poetry, we shall see that in its force, rather 
than length, of the accented syllable and in its disregard 
for the number of syllables in a line it is one of the chief 
ancestors of modern English verse. 2 

OLD ENGLISH PROSE. 

During the ninth century Northumbria was devastated 
by the Danes, and what Old English literature flourished 
after that was in the South of England, at Winchester, in 
the Kingdom of Wessex. Here Old English prose first 
came into prominence, and King Alfred is conspicuously 
the chief figure. Latin had been the language of prose 
before Alfred, as in Baeda's Ecclesiastical History (about 
710). It is true that just before his death Bseda wrote 
an English Translation of the Gospel of St. John, but it 

accent never has the same initial sound as the rime-giver, but it may 
" alliterate " with one of the accents in the first half of the line, if this 
accent does not rime with the rime-giver. An example of an Old 
English line is : 

Wtox under wolcnum, weord-myndum £>ah 
For he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve. 
For other examples, in translation, see the passages from Beowulf 
on pp. 10-15. 

1 Handbook of Poetics, p. 176. 

2 For a discussion of English versification see p. 421. 




KING ALFRED 
Statue at Winchester by Hamo Thornycroft 



The Anglo-Saxons 25 

was not till the West-Saxon king championed his native 
tongue that prose-writing in English was at all common. 
For Alfred not only wrote, but set up schools where " all 
the free-born youth, who have the means, shall be set to 
learning . . . till they can read English writing thor- 
oughly." 

Born about 849, Alfred showed in his youth a fond- 
ness for literature and a keen desire for learning. Be- 
fore he was thirty he became king of the West Saxons 
and was occupied for the greater part of his reign with 
Danish wars. In spite of this, however, and although his 
health was weak, he managed to unite the Saxon people, 
to make wise laws, to promote learning, and to live a 
model life. Tradition has it that eight hours of each 
twenty- four he spent in attending to the affairs of his 
kingdom, eight in sleeping, eating, and recreation, and the 
third eight he reserved for study. Comely, brave, and 
wise, he has reasonably been held by the English people 
of all time as the pattern of a good ruler. 

Alfred's literary work was mostly translation, edited 
usually with important additions of his own for the in- 
struction of his Wessex people. As in the case of the 
poets, the authorship of the so-called works of Alfred is 
not undisputed, but it is almost certain that the following 
were translated either by him or under his direction: 
Gregory's Pastoral Care, The History of Orosius, Baeda's 
History, The Consolations of Boethius, Gregory's Dia- 
logues, and the Psalms. Perhaps his most important 
work was on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A brief record 
before his time, he enlarged it and made it interesting; 
and w T ith the impulse he gave it, it was continued till 1 154. 



26 A History of English Literature 

It is not only the chief source of our knowledge of Anglo- 
Saxon history, but is a great piece of literature. 

Soon after Alfred Old English literature came to a 
standstill. It was yet written, of course, chiefly in the 
schools and monasteries, — notably by .ZElfric, best 
known for his Homilies; a few poems such as the Battle 
of Brunanburgh and the Battle of Maldon were made; 
and the Chronicle was kept up. But the whole northeast 
half of England was being settled by Danes, soon actually 
to rule on Alfred's throne, and not long after the Danes 
came the Normans. The Anglo-Saxons, in other words, 
instead of feeling a common impulse, were going to 
pieces. They lacked a national sense. 

The body of Old English literature is very large, con- 
sidering its antiquity. In its love of the great out-of- 
doors and the heroic deeds of men, in its seriousness, and 
in its religious zeal it gives a vivid picture of a vigorous 
race. In the literature that followed we shall find little 
that is pure Anglo-Saxon, but we shall often find the 
strong Anglo-Saxon spirit underneath. Yet with its 
tribal limitations it could not proceed beyond the point 
to which Cynewulf raised it in poetry and Alfred in 
prose. Before England could have a national language 
and a national literature, the centralizing and organizing 
genius of the Danes and Normans had to do its work. 



The Anglo-Saxons 



27 



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28 A History of English Literature 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Beowulf. Of the numerous translations, 
perhaps the most useful, because it follows exactly the verse- 
form of the original, is that by Gummere in The Oldest Eng- 
lish Epic (Macmillan). Of the other Old English poems the 
best are given in Translations from Old English Poetry, ed. by 
Cook and Tinker (Ginn). Of these The Seafarer, Deor's 
Lament, Elene, The Dream of the Rood, Judith, The Bat- 
tle of Maldon, and a few riddles and charms form a repre- 
sentative selection for a first reading. 

Sufficient specimens of Old English prose will be found in 
Cook and Tinker's Translations from Old English Prose 
(Ginn). Baeda's History and The Axglo-Saxox Chronicle 
are published, translated, in one volume in the Bohn Library ; 
separately in Everyman s Library (Dutton). 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. Grant Allen's Anglo-Saxon 
Britain (S. P. C K.) is a good brief account of the period. 
For the literary history, see special chapters in books recom- 
mended on p. 433; also Stopford Brooke's English Literature 
from the Beginning to the X or man Conquest (Macmillan). 

FICTION. Bulwer Lyttoirs Harold and Kingsley's Here- 
ward the Wake give interesting, if not wholly historical, pic- 
tures of the Norman Conquest. Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill 
gives here and there touches of the quaint superstitions of the 
Anglo-Saxons. 



CHAPTER II 

FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER 
(1066-1375) 

1. THE FOREIGN PERIOD, 1066-1250. 

The Conquest. Chaucer, who died in the year 1400, 
stands midway in point of time between Alfred and the 
present day. Yet a moment's glance at the language of 
Chaucer's writings shows us that they are much farther 
from old than from modern English. This great change, 
from Anglo-Saxon England, with its tribes and dialects, 
to a national England, with a national language, was 
brought about largely by the Norman Conquest. The ex- 
pression, " the chasm of the Conquest," does not exag- 
gerate the gulf which separates the language and the 
literature of the West Saxons from the language and the 
literature of Englishmen in the reign of Henry III. 
During this foreign period there were some books written 
in English, — a kind of dying Old English, — a few of 
which we shall notice, but most of the writing in England 
was in Latin and French. The time was one of transi- 
tion. The important thing to remark, therefore, is the 
character of the changing England and the changing lan- 
guage. 

The Conquest by the Normans was so complete, polit- 
ically, that positions in both church and state were soon 

29 



30 A History of English Literature 

filled by Normans. Norman French, therefore, became 
the language not only of the nobility, but of the law- 
courts, of the monasteries, and of the schools. What 
few wealthy Saxons were able to retain their lands and 
positions usually imitated their Norman overlords; and 
Englishmen who rose from the ranks did so by the grace 
of a French schooling. English, therefore, though still 
spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of England, 
nearly ceased for a century and a half as a literary lan- 
guage. It is well to remember that the early Plantagenet 
kings held more acres south of the Channel than north, 
and that Richard Coeur de Leon, a hero in English story, 
spoke French, had French ways, and, even when king 
of England, spent the greater part of his time out of Eng- 
land. 

This period of transition, though its direct returns in 
English books were few, saw the production of some 
brilliant literature in French and Latin; and much of this 
literature affected the English of later times. Outside 
of England, too, learning and literature flourished, and 
though we have no space here to consider this foreign 
literature in detail, it is important to remember that Eng- 
lishmen of education were far more likely to be familiar 
with the writings of Chrestien de Troyes and Wolfram 
von Eschenbach than with the works of Cynewulf and 
Alfred, or even of their contemporary English authors, 
Orm and Layamon. Whether written in England or on 
the Continent, this foreign literature — especially that 
part which may be grouped under Romances — exerted, 
as we shall presently see, a tremendous influence on the 
English literature of the thirteenth century. 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 31 

The Language. The reason that the Romances, even 
those of which the stories came from England, did not 
receive English form till after they had been written in 
French, is due not only to the fact that French was the 
language of the educated, but to the further fact that 
for a long time there was no common English language, 
intelligible, say, in both York and London. We have 
seen the disappearance of the Northumbrian dialect, as a 
literary language, during the Danish invasions, and the 
prominence, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, of 
the West-Saxon dialect. Soon after the Conquest the 
speech of Alfred began to disappear into Dorset and 
Cornwall. Midland (or Mercian) Old English, more- 
over, was sunk, at the time of the Conquest, into local, 
oral obscurity. The result was that literally for over a 
century, and practically for three centuries (1 066-1 362), 
Englishmen of different parts of the country could not 
understand each other, or even read, without difficulty, 
each other's writings. But English was only submerged, 
not obliterated; gradually it became, with the Mercian 
dialect the chief element, spoken as a national language, 1 
except in the extreme North and West ; and a little later 
Chaucer fixed it for all time as the language of England's 
literature. 

How near the Mercian dialect, even as early as 1140, 
was to modern English may be appreciated by comparing 
an easy sentence from the Chronicle of that date with a 
literal translation. 

1 In 1362 English was substituted for French as the language of the 
law-courts. 



32 A History of English Literature 

CHRONICLE. TRANSLATION. 

An te eorl of Angara And the earl of Anjou 

waerd ded, and his sune was dead, and his son 

Henri toe to t>e rice. Henry took to the kingdom. 

The disappearance of Old English as a literary lan- 
guage is marked chiefly by three things, (i) A great 
change in vocabulary. Practically all words not in com- 
mon oral use were lost, and their equivalents, when Eng- 
lish began to be written considerably again (i.e., in the 
thirteenth century), were found in French. (2) A fur- 
ther influence of French was to hasten the disappearance 
of inflections and the consequent use of prepositions and 
auxiliary verbs. (3) The Old English alliterative meter, 
though it was revived in the fourteenth century, gave way 
largely to the numbered syllables and end-rime of French 
verse. The resulting English, the language of Chaucer, 
retained many marks, in both inflection and idiom, of its 
Old English origin: neither Old English nor modern 
English, it has- been roughly called Middle English. In 
its early stages, in the thirteenth century, it was still 
broken into many dialects, but a national England, 
wrought by the centralizing genius of Norman and 
Plantagenet, surely, if slowly, developed a national lan- 
guage. 

English Literature, 1066-12 50. For over a century 7 
after the Conquest, writings in English were practically 
a living-on of Old English. We have noted the Chron- 
icle, continuing till 11 54. Two other important works 
should be mentioned: Layamon's Brut (1205) and 
Orm's Ormulum (about 1200). Layamon, a priest liv- 
ing at Ernley, on the banks of the Severn, says he took 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 33 

Baeda's History, both in Latin and the Old English trans- 
lation, and Wace's Brut d'Angleterre, compressed the 
three into one, and so wrote out the story of Britain. 
He begins with the fiction that ascribed the founding of 
Britain to Brutus, descendant of ^Eneas, 1 and includes 
in his poem, along with a certain amount of history, the 
larger part of the Arthurian legend. Layamon's Brut 
is written in the Old English alliterative style. Here is 
an example : 

Lay am on. fetheren he nom mid fingren 

& fiede on boc-felle. 
Translation, feather (pen) he took with fingers 
and wrote on book-fell (skin). 

But, early as the Brut was written, it is not without 
signs of the foreign influence: Layamon uses the old 
meter awkw T ardly, as if it were not quite natural; he in- 
troduces some end-rime; and he shows the growing in- 
terest in the Arthurian legend. The Ormulum, or " book 
of Orm," is a metrical paraphrase of the gospels for the 
year, with copious comments by the author. In one 
sense it seems more modern than Layamon's Brut, prob- 
ably because it is almost pure Mercian English, and be- 
cause it is written in fifteen-syllable couplets, with a good 
deal of end-rime as well as alliteration. But it bears no 
sign of the foreign influence in its subject and in its 
vocabulary; Orm uses scarcely half-a-dozen French 
words. The chief value of the poem is for students of 
the changing language, for the Ormulum carries no in- 
terest as poetry. 

1 Milton uses the same story for the genealogy of Sabrina, in 
Conns, I.826. 



34 A History of English Literature 

2. MIDDLE ENGLISH BEFORE CHAUCER, 1250-1375. 

A book interesting because it stands half way between 
the Old English of Layamon and the Middle English of 
the Romances, is the Ancrcn RizJc, or " Rules for An- 
choresses " (c. 122; ), written for three ladies who wished 
to live in religious retirement. It is one of the earliest 
examples of English prose (excepting, of course, the 
Anglo-Saxon writers ) and. though written at a time when 
the English language was still in confusion, it stands out 
as one of the best pieces of prose writing in the Middle 
Ages. 

Of about the same date and reminding us that the 
poets of the thirteenth century were not without true 
feeling, are several short poems, such as The Ozi'l and 
the Xightingale. One of these, especially, is still fresh 
with the sights and sounds of spring. It begins: 

Sumer is icumen in. 

Lhude - sing cuccu ! 
Groweth sed. 2 and bloweth med. 3 

And springth the wude 4 nu. 3 
Sing cuccu. 

These songs show little of the foreign book-learning: 
they spring naturally from native impulse and prevent us 
from forgetting that Englishmen at all times take easily 
to songs of nature. If these songs did not remind us of 
the Englishman's love of out-of-doors, the ballads, still 
more truly native, quite the production of the people as 
opposed to the courtly scholars, would keep fresh our 

1 Loud. '- seed. 3 meadow. 4 wood. 5 anew. 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 35 

picture of merry England. Some of these ballads, 
springing from oral tradition, are very old, but a study 
of them, as well as of the early plays, also made for the 
people, must be reserved for later chapters, when their 
connection with written literature will be clear. 1 For 
the present it is sufficient to realize that the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries saw a great many English works, 
some humble and popular, some addressed to courtly ears. 

For, in addition to the popular writings just mentioned, 
the chronicling and moralizing spirit of the Middle Ages 
continued to produce works in English as well as in 
Latin. Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle (1298), the 
Metrical Lives of the Saints (1300), possibly by the same 
author, Cursor Mundi (c. 1320), an old-fashioned para- 
phrase of the Scriptures, and Michael of Northgate's 
Ayenbite of Inwyt 2 (1340) are well-known examples. 
In more fictitious vein is the Voyages and Travels of Sir 
John Mandeville, a quaint collection of stories and in- 
formation based on a supposed journey to the Holy Land 
and beyond. The book was first written in French 
(c. 1370), and translated into English in the early fif- 
teenth century. Like the narrative of Marco Polo, it is 
too inaccurate and fabulous to have been of service to 
the perplexed traveler, but it is lively reading and gives 
us much of our lore about such wondrous monarchs as 
Prester John. Here is an example, in modern spelling : 

" And from thence, men go through little Ermonye. 3 
And in that country is an old castle, that stands upon a 

1 The Ballads in Chap. Ill, the Plays in Chap. V. 

2 That is, " Remorse of Conscience." 

3 Armenia. 



36 A History of English Literature 

rock, the which is cleped 1 The Castle of the Sparrow- 
hawk; . . . where men find a sparrowhawk upon a perch 
right fair, and right well made; and a fair Lady of 
Fayrye, 2 that keepeth it. And who that will wake 3 that 
sparrow-hawk, 7 days and 7 nights, and as some men say, 
3 days and 3 nights, without company and without sleep, 
that fair lady shall give him, when he hath done, the 
first wish, that he will wish, of earthly things: and that 
hath been proved often times." 

The Romances. The great literature of this period, 
however, — great in bulk as well as in excellence — was 
the body of poems which are usually called Romances.^ 
The Romances began to flourish, as we have seen, in the 
fertile soil of France, during the twelfth century. Writ- 
ten rather for " my lady's bower " than for " my lord's 
hall," they supplanted the more stately epic throughout 
Europe in the thirteenth century. It is difficult, however, 
even in a long explanation, and impossible in a short, to 
draw an exact line around what may be strictly called 
" Metrical Romances," as distinguished from epic on the 
one hand and popular tales on the other. The old writers 
themselves felt no close restriction in their choice of sub- 
jects; the story of Arthur and his knights, most popular 
of the Romances, was originally the British epic, and the 

1 called. 

2 Faery. 

3 watch, keep vigil. 

4 Romances. A loose term applied to "any fictitious story of 
heroic, marvelous, or supernatural incidents derived from history 
or legend." The name was originally applied to a tale written in one 
of the Romance dialects (i.e., of Roman origin), such as easly 
French or Provengal. 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 37 

Lay of Havelok comes close to being a popular tale. 
Roughly, we may include all the heroic, half -fictitious, 
legendary poetry of the Middle Ages under this term 
"Romances"; the English poets of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries had, as rich material, all the tales 
of great and marvelous deeds and all the magic love 




GLASTONBURY ABBEY 

According to one tradition, the burial-place of King Arthur 

stories that had been sung for a century by the trouveres, 
jongleurs, troubadours, and minnesingers of Europe. 
The spirit of these Romances we can understand better 
by reading two lines by Keats ; 

Magic casements opening on the foam 
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn,— 

than by a long explanation; for Romance is of the imag- 
ination and will not brook narrow bounds of definition. 

The vast number of subjects for these Romances came 
from all over the world. Ever since Jean Bodel wrote 
in the twelfth century of the three " matters " — of 



38 A History of English Literature 

France, of Britain, and of Rome — it has been customary 
to denote the origin of the stories of Romance by this 
three-fold division. The stories of Charlemagne and of 
French heroes are the " matter of France " ; the legends 
of Arthur and his knights, as well as proper English 
stories, like King Horn and Guy of Warwick, are the 
" matter of Britain " ; and tales of antiquity, especially 
those about Alexander and about Troy, are the " matter 
of Rome." When these stories were " Englished/' 
usually after they had been told in many versions in 
French, their authors naturally used French sources, as 
Layamon had used Wace's Brut d'Angleterre; and the 
result was that not only the foreign versions, even of 
native English stories, were followed, but the French 
verse-form, with its numbered syllables and end-rime, was 
adopted. 

In England the Romances were neither so common nor 
so well written as in France. England, it has been said, 
" did not possess the heart of the mystery," but this is 
not true if we include the Englishmen who wrote in 
French. It is not true, either, if we consider the vast 
influence exercised by the Romances on English poets of 
later times, if we remember that Chaucer used many of 
them for his. plots, and that the " Romantic movement," 
towards the close of the eighteenth century, reached its 
greatest splendor in England. Further, if we count the 
" matter " as well as the manner, England did very much 
possess the heart of the mystery, for the Arthurian tales, 
of the " matter of Britain," were the chief glory of the 
whole matter of Romance. And though Malory, the 
best-known writer of English Arthurian stories, did not 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 39 

live till the fifteenth century, there were a good many 
English poems on this subject written during the true 
period of Romance — the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
turies. 

Finally, a Briton was first responsible for the popularity 
of the Arthurian legends. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a 




TINTAGEL HEAD, CORNWALL 

Welshman, wrote his Historia Regum Britanniae in Latin 
about 1 140, and in this book he included all he could, 
find and about all he could invent, not only about Brutus 
and the fictitious settlement of Britain, but about Arthur 
and his knights. Wace, the Frenchman, and Layamon, 
the Englishman who followed him, we have seen retell- 
ing the story, pretty much as Geoffrey left it. The tales, 
however, were popular in France for a century before 
they were written in English. Sir Tristrem and Arthur 



40 A History of English Literature 

and Merlin (both written in the late thirteenth century), 
Morte Arthur e (c. 1340), and Gawain and the Green 
Knight (c. 1370) were the chief English poems based 
on these old British legends. Other Romances popular 
in England were King Horn (c. 1250), Havelok 
(c. 1300), Guy of Warzvick (c. 1300), and Bevis of 
Hampton (c. 1300). Among all these and many. more, 
unmentioned here, 1 Gawain and the Green Knight stands 
out as conspicuously the best. 

While Arthur and his knights are feasting at Camelot, one 
New Year's Day, a giant clad in green rides into the hall and 
challenges any of the knights to exchange blows with him. 
His opponent may have the first stroke, on condition that a 
year later the green knight be allowed his turn. At first all 
the knights are afraid, but Gawain, who finally takes up the 
challenge, strikes off the head of the strange giant. Thereupon 
the green knight rides away, carrying his head in his hand. 

A year later Gawain, though his companions seek to dis- 
suade him, insists on going to the Green Chapel to receive his 
blow. After wandering for a long time without finding the 
Green Chapel, he comes to a beautiful castle, the lord of which 
tells him that it is but two miles to the Green Chapel and, 
since it is only Christmas eve, persuades him to spend the 
week with him. At a Christmas feast the host suggests that 
each day Gawain shall stay in the castle with his wife, while 
he himself shall go early to the chase; and they agree to ex- 
change each evening whatever they have received during the 
day. When the host has gone, his beautiful wife seeks to 
win Gawain's love, but the knight resists her blandishments, 
accepting only a kiss. This he gives faithfully to his host, in 
return for the spoils of the chase. So it continues for three 

1 A full list of both the English and French Romances will be 
found in Appendix I to Schofield's English Literature from the Nor- 
man Conquest to Chaucer. 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 41 

days, Gawain rendering the kisses faithfully to his host; he 
has refused all else except a magic girdle, which will pro- 
tect him from injury. Of the girdle, however, he does not tell 
his host. 

On New Year's Day Gawain goes to the Green Chapel, a dis- 
mal place where " the devil might say his matins at midnight.'' 
The giant comes forth, praises him for keeping the agreement, 
and strikes him, but in such a way that he is not seriously in- 
jured. Then the giant reveals to Gawain that he and the host 
of the castle are one and the same and that he has been the 
cause of his wife's love-making, to test Gawain's virtue. 
Thereupon he praises the knight for his valour and chastity: 
" As a pearl among white peas is of more worth than they, so 
is Gawain, i' faith, by other knights." Gawain is now ashamed 
of his deceit and tells the other of the magic girdle, but the 
Green Knight makes light of it and begs the young hero to 
return with him to his castle. Gawain, however, declines and 
returns at once to Camelot, where the lords and ladies agree to 
wear green lace in honor of the adventure. 

Gawain and the Green Knight is written in irregular 
stanzas, combining the revived alliteration with the new 
end-rimes. Another poem of the same time, The Pearl, 
is so like it, in language, versification, and general ex- 
cellence that scholars usually attribute both works to the 
same author. The Pearl, however, is not a romance, but 
a lament, full of genuine feeling, on the death of the 
poet's daughter. Probably by the same hand are Clean- 
ness and Patience, retold tales from the Bible. Religious 
and moral writings, both in Latin and English, were com- 
mon in the Middle Ages, especially in this fourteenth cen- 
tury. It was the age of Tauler and Huss, the German 
and Bohemian reformers, and of the English Wiclif, 
called " the Morning Star of the Reformation." 



42 A History of English Literature 

Wiclif. John Wiclif, next to Chaucer the great figure 
of the [Middle Ages in English Literature, was born about 
1320 in Yorkshire and died at Lutterworth, his parish in 
Leicestershire, in 1384. After a youth spent in scholarly 
pursuits, he became a great leader of men, especially of 
the poor. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, 

believed in the com- 
pulsory poverty of the 
clergy, and railed at 
the existing monastic 
orders, now grown cor- 
rupt. About him gath- 
ered a great body of 




followers, called " Lol- 
lards " ; in fact, it was 
said that every second 
man one met in Lon- 
don was a Lollard. 
Wiclif and many of his 
followers went about 
expounding the Gospels 
to the poor. Through- 
out his reforms he excited the bitter animosity of 
the Church, which in 1382 condemned him as a her- 
etic and which, after his burial, exhumed and burnt his 
body and scattered the ashes in the River Swift. The 
Church in the fourteenth century was full of corrupt prac- 
tices, as Chaucer so vividly points out in his pictures of 
worldly priests ; and such sturdy opposition as Wiclif 
gave led to the Statute of Heretics, in 1407, a provision 
for burning " false prophets " at the stake. But the free- 



JOHX WICLIF 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 43 

dom which Wiclif upheld could not be put down by stat- 
ute; a century and a half after his death the cause for 
which he had labored triumphed. 

Wiclifs importance in literature springs from his 
Translation of the Bible, about 1380. Alfred had given 
the West Saxons part of the Bible in their own tongue, 
but since his day the Church, increasing in power, had 
opposed giving the common people the Scriptures to read 
for themselves. Wiclifs Middle English Bible was much 
copied in his day, but, coming before the printing press, it 
did not receive sufficient circulation to overcome the oppo- 
sition of the Church. His service was to the Lollards of 
his own time; it remained for Tyndale, in the reign of 
Henry VIII, to give us our Bible. 

Piers Plowman. The greatest literature of the four- 
teenth century religious revival was undoubtedly The 
Vision of Piers the Ploii'man. The poem was long as- 
cribed to William Langland, but was probably the work 
of several men and has come down to us in three texts. 
It tells how the author, whoever he was, fell a-dream- 
ing on Malvern Hills, as he slept by a brookside, and how 
in his vision he saw a castle upon a hill and a dungeon 
below, and in the space between a great crowd of people, 
chiefly occupied with wickedness — a sort of Vanity Fair. 
" Holy Church/' descending, tells him that the castle is 
Truth and the dungeon the dwelling of Falsehood. The 
poet then mingles with the throng — allegorical ab- 
stractions, such as Conscience, Reason, the Seven Deadly 
Sins. The scene changes to Westminster, where the case 
of " Meed " (or self-interest) whom Conscience refused 
to marry, is tried; but before a conclusion is reached, the 



44 A History of English Literature 

author is found listening to the confessions of the Seven 
Deadly Sins. Finally the plowman himself appears, the 
poor man exalted and transfigured, like Christ. The 




MALVERN HILLS, PIERS PLOWMAN COUNTRY 

poem, expressed in simple, vivid language, was very pop- 
ular in its day. The opening lines give an excellent idea 
of its language and its form: 

In the somer sesun, whon softe was the sonne, 
I schop 1 me into a shroud, 2 as I a scheep 3 were ; 
In habite as an hermite, unholy of werkes, 
Wente I wyde in this world wondres to here ; 4 

I was wery, forwandred, 5 and wente me to reste 
Under a brod banke bi a bourne 6 side ; 
And as I lay and leonede 7 and lokede on the watres, 
I slumbrede in a slepynge, hit s swyed 9 so murie. 10 

1 arrayed. 2 garment. 3 shepherd. 4 hear. 

5 worn out with wandering. 6 brook. 7 leaned. 

8 it. 9 sounded. 10 merry. 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 45 

The Vision of Piers the Plowman points backward in 
its Old English meter, but in its subject and in its interest 
it looks forward to the Puritan England which produced 
that other great book of the people, Bunyan's Pilgrim's 
Progress, also written " in the similitude of a dream." 

CONCLUSION. 

A glance over this period between the Conquest and 
Chaucer shows a time of transition. During these three 
centuries the English people and their language were not 
separate, national units, but were more or less confused 
— more at first, less toward the end — with the peoples 
and the languages of the Continent. 

We have noted the impress of the Xorman character, 
with its effect on both literature and language. We have 
marked, too, the living-on, in the real heart of English 
life, of the native characteristics — the earnestness, the 
religious zeal, the love of song and out-of-doors. And 
we have seen how the Romances invaded England and 
flourished there, till the Middle Ages have taken on in 
popular tradition something of their bewildering magic, 
the mystery of their " forests and enchantments drear." 
But in history we must guard against the fictitious; we 
must leave the magic with the tales of " faery " and 
realize soberly that the Middle Ages w T ere filled with real 
people, whose life was reflected through three centuries in 
a various literature. Furthermore, because it was an age 
of transition, because there was no strong national im- 
pulse till the reign of Edward III, it is impossible, as it 
is unwise, to cover the whole period by a comprehensive 
phrase. 



46 A History of English Literature 



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48 A History of English Literature 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Geoffrey of Monmouth's History, trans- 
lated, is published in Everyman's Library (Dutton) ; Laya- 
ttion's Brut has been published, with a translation by 
Frederic Madden, London, 1847. For a general idea of the 
Metrical Romances the best collection is by Ellis, Specimens of 
Early English Metrical Romances, 3 vols. (Bohn). King 
Horn and Havelok are published by the Clarendon Press. 
There is a good prose translation of Sir Gawain and the 
Green Knight, by J. L. Weston (Nutt) ; and The Pearl has 
been translated into modern verse by S. Weir Mitchell (Cen- 
tury). The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville 
has been edited by Morley (Cassell's National Library). Se- 
lections from Wiclif's Bible are published by the Clarendon 
Press. The best edition of Piers the Plowman is that by 
W. W. Skeat (Clarendon Press) ; the poem has been translated 
into prose by K. M. Warner (Macmillan). 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

An excellent beginning may be made by reading the selec- 
tions given in Manly's English Poetry (Ginn) and English 
Prose (Ginn) and by reading the translation of Sir Gawain 
and the Green Knight. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. Freeman's Short History of 
the Norman Conquest (Clarendon Press) and Stubbs, The 
Early Plantagenets (Epochs Series), cover the political history 
of the period. One should read also Jusserand's English 
Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century (Putnam) and 
Trevelyan's The Age of Wiclif (Longmans). The best ac- 
count of the literary history is Schofield's English Literature 
from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer (Macmillan). See also 
special chapters in books recommended on p. 433. 

POETRY, FICTION, ETC. Many novels and plays take 
their stories and scenes from this period. Among the best are : 



From the Conquest to Chaucer 49 

Scott's Ivanhoe and Talisman, Shakespeare's King John, Ten- 
nyson's Becket, Marlowe's Edward II, and Jane Porter's Scot- 
tish Chiefs. The Red King, by Kingsley, and The White Ship, 
by Rossetti, are included in English History told by English 
Poets, ed. by Miss Bates and Miss Coman (Macmillan). 
Gray's poem, The Bard, should also be read. Tennyson's 
Idylls of the King, though they deal with an older story, take 
their inspiration from this period of Romances. 



CHAPTER III 

THE AGE OF CHAUCER 

(i375- I 5oo) 

Romances, as we have seen, flourished in England dur- 
ing the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Age 
of Chaucer, coming at the end of this period, was not so 
much a new era as the climax of the Middle Age in 
England. New forces were at work — especially in 
Italy — which w T ere to bring about a new age ; and these 
forces can be seen in England, in the work of Wiclif, 
even in the poetry of Chaucer. The main character of 
the time, however, particularly of Chaucer, the chief 
literary figure of the age, was practically that of the 
preceding period. With the fourteenth century we recall 
Crecy, Poitiers, and the Black Prince; the fine heroism 
of Percy and Douglas at Chevy Chase ; — the days " when 
knighthood was in flower," when chivalry meant 

" Trouthe and honour, fredom and courteisye." 

It was in this age that Chaucer lived. Like his fellow- 
poets, he was chiefly a teller of stories; and, like the 
others, he drew freely on the well-known tales of his 
time. 

We are accustomed, however, to call Chaucer the 
" Father of English poetry." But this name should not 

50 • 



The Age of Chaucer 51 

indicate that he was particularly an innovator, so much 
as that he was the greatest writer of his day and the 
poet who tended to fix the English language and verse- 
form in -channels which they have ever since followed. 
Perhaps his greatest influence was in showing men that 
English, in a bi-lingual age, was " sufficient " for poetry. 
In the century after his death he was looked up to as " the 
first fyndere of our faire language," and English poets 
of more modern times have paid great honor to his 
name. 

The literature of the fourteenth century, however, was 
not written entirely for educated readers. It was at this 
time that the popular ballads flourished, the most famous 
of which were those about Robin Hood. During the 
following century, moreover, they made up an important 
part of the literature; and for this reason, as well as to 
follow the days of " Romance " to their end, we shall 
include the fifteenth century with the Age of Chaucer. 
It must be clearly recognized, nevertheless, that the fif- 
teenth century was a time of breaking-up, in both church 
and state. In less than a hundred years after Chaucer's 
death the Middle Ages had almost passed. The brutal 
Wars of the Roses are a convincing sign of how different 
the days of Henry VI were from the times of Edward III. 
In the same year that Caxton printed Malory's Morte 
Darthur (1485) the Tudors succeeded to the English 
throne ; and though ballads and romances were still writ- 
ten for a time, with the Tudors modern England began. 

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340-1400). 

Landor, in speaking of Chaucer's " enquiring eye " 
and tongue " varied in discourse," described the most no- 



52 A History of English Literature 

ticeable trait in the poet's character. Kindly, humorous, 
familiar with men and their ways, Chaucer had the rare 
power of depicting all sorts of individuals so vividly that, 
though five centuries intervene, we feel at once as if we 
were members of his pilgrim company: we do not read 
about them; we see and hear them; we almost literally 
journey along with them and Harry Bailey the host on the 
Pilgrim's Way from Southwark to Canterbury. It is this 
power, coupled with his skill in narration, that makes 
Chaucer's greatness. He did not write great lyric poetry, 
and he does not often move us by high thoughts, but 
among his contemporaries no one could see characters or 
tell a tale as well as he. 

Life. Chaucer was born in London about 1340. His 
father was a prominent vintner, connected with the Court, 
and the son served at the age of seventeen in the royal 
household. What education he had is not known, but, 
like most boys of his time, he was familiar with French 
and Latin 1 and he seems to have had a considerable 
knowledge of what then passed for science. His educa- 
tion in practical affairs continued all through his life, for 
he went to war, traveled, and held public office. At the 
age of nineteen he served in the French wars, was taken 
prisoner, and was ransomed by the king ; in 1367, as a yeo- 
man of the king's chamber, he received a pension, to con- 
tinue for life, and soon after he was raised to the rank of 
squire; in 1370, and again in 1372, he was sent on com- 
missions abroad; and in 1374 he was appointed Comp- 
troller of the Custom and Subsidy of Wools, Hides, and 
Woodfells, and also of the Petty Customs of Wine in the 

1 Though his Latin is not above reproach. 




GEOFFREY CHAUCER 
From a painting by J. Houbraken 



The Age of Chaucer 55 

Port of London. He had married, probably about 1366, 
Philippa, a lady of the queen's chamber, who also re- 
ceived a pension from the Crown. Before he was thirty- 
five, then, Chaucer was in good case : well established at 
Court and befriended by no less a person than John of 
Gaunt. 

By this date Chaucer's literary ventures had already 




CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 
From a drawing by Joseph Penncll 



begun. One of his first poems was his Boke of the 
Duchesse (1369), on the death of Blanche, John of 
Gaunt's wife; and his long Romaunt of the Rose also 
belongs to his earlier years. These verses show marked 
French influence, both in material and in style, as does 
his Legend e of Good Women (about 1384). By the 
time he was forty, however, he had come under strong 
Italian influences, possibly dating from his commission of 



56 A History of English Literature 

1372-3, when he probably visited Petrarch in Padua. 
Roughly speaking, his writing 1; -.wed the influence 
01 this contact: Troilus and C | about 1382) re- 

veals no less a debt to Boccaccio than The Hols f F : 
(about 1384) does to Dante. Chaucer's greatest work, 
however, The Canterbury Tales (about 1375-95). is 
sturdily English; and though in its general plan, as in its 
plots, it shows foreign influence, it is entirely English in 
its setting, its characters, its humor, and its shrewd 
common-sense. Besides these chief works should be 
noted Chaucer's prose translation of the Consolation of 
Philosophy, by Boethius, and his pr: sc treatise on the use 
of the Astrolabe (1391), written for "Litel Lowis my 
son/' 

Till within fifteen years of his death Chaucer's pros- 
perity continued. He was appointed to new posts of 
importance: in 1385 he was made a justice of the peace 
for Kent, and in 1386 he was elected one of the two 
knights to represent his county. From then on, how- 
ever, he fell in favor, lost his comptrollerships, and seems 
to have been in rather narrow straits. On the return of 
John of Gaunt to England in 1389 he was given new 
positions, but his purse was never again very full, in 
spite of occasional pensions. On the accession of Henry 
IV he addressed to the king The Compleynt of Chauc 
to his Purse, in which he says that he is shaved " close as 
a friar." Within a year, however, the. poet died, — Oc- 
tober 25, 1400. He was the first poet buried in the Poets' 
Corner in 'Westminster Abbey. 

Works. In -reading Chaucer the beginner is con- 
fronted with difficulties which seem great: but. :/. ;v_:: 



The Age of Chaucer 57 

a complete mastery of Chaucer's verse and language 
means extended study, the initial difficulties may be 
readily overcome. To get, for a first reading, the rhythm 
of the poet's meter, sound all final e's except when they 
are followed by a vowel, by a pronoun beginning with h, 
by the verb have, and by a few words in which the h is 
silent. This is the primary rule, though of course the 
nice placing of the accent and a knowledge of Chaucer's 
pronunciation are essential to accurate reading. 1 The 
chief obstacles of the language may be overcome by using 
a glossary for the unusual words and by telling the mean- 
ing of usual words from the sound rather than from the 
spelling. Here again, however, some knowledge of 
Middle English is necessary for an accurate reading. 
For, as we get to know our Chaucer, we learn to recog- 
nize the melody and beauty of his verse and his skilful 
choice of words; and we then realize that what seemed 
crude was due to our ignorance, not to any real defect. 
We must try to read Chaucer's verse, so far as we can, 
as he himself read it. 

As Chaucer advanced in years, his poetry became more 
and more a reflection of his own power. We have noted 
how French and Italian models influenced his early and 
middle writing. It should be added, however, that even 
here he gave a new richness and life to old work. No 
maker of plots, he turned freely to the classics, to France, 
and to Italy for material ; and he always wrote in riming 

1 For a full explanation of these points the student should consult 
Professor Skeat's The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford, 1894. 
A good working knowledge may be gained from the introduction to 
Chaucer's Prologue in the Riverside Literature Series, Houghton 
Mifflin Company. 



58 A History of English Literature 

meters either copied or adapted from continental models ; 
but the humor, the brief descriptive phrase, and the vivid 
character-drawing are his own. A good example of 
how he improved on his models is the rare skill with 
which he fitted the stories in The Canterbury Talcs to the 
various speakers. The idea of having a group of persons 
tell stories was no doubt taken from Boccaccio, but in the 
Italian's book the tales do not particularly fit the speakers. 
who themselves are colorless : Chaucer, on the other hand, 
gives us a vivid impression of each member of his group 
and then puts an appropriate tale into the mouth of each. 

Chaucer's longest poem is his Troilus and Criseyde, 
partly translated from Boccaccio's II Filostrato, a story 
that has been loved by poets ever since classic times. 
Chaucer's version has its chief value in the contrast that 
he makes between the tragedy of the lovers and the humor 
of the talkative old Pandarus. He does not slight the 
tale. but. unlike Boccaccio, he sets it off by making human 
beings of his characters. 

The Hous of Fame, Chaucer's last work of the so- 
called ''' Italian period," shows the influence of Dante. 
The poem is put in the form of a dream, and Chaucer 
finds himself among a crowd of people seeking renown 
before the Goddess of Fame. But the poet, seeing the 
worthlessness of mere notoriety, mocks at it in the follow- 
ing words : 

" Nay, forsothe. frend ! " quod I : 
" I cam noght hider. graunt mercy! 
For no swich x cause, by my heed ! 
Sufficeth me. as I were deed. 

1 Such. 



The Age of Chaucer 59 

That no wight have my name in honde. 1 
I woot 2 myself best how I stonde." 3 

The poem is left unfinished, but it shows us Chaucer's 
position, that he does not consider himself an aspirant to 
literary fame, but that he is to sift the true from the 
false and to interpret all the confused sights and sounds 
in the House of Rumor. This is exactly what he does 
do in his Legende of Good Women and Canterbury 
Tales. 

The Legende of Good Women, in honor of the queen, 
was to be a " glorious legende " setting forth the stories 
of twenty women faithful in love. Less than half was 
written, but the poem contains some of Chaucer's best 
verse, and is especially remembered for its prologue, in 
which the poet tells how May and the daisy alone can 
call him from his books : 

And as for me, although I can 4 but lyte, 5 
On bokes for to rede I me delyte, 

Save, certeynly, that whan the month of May 

Is comen, and that the floures ginnen 6 for to springe, — 

Farewel my boke, and my devocioun. 

The Canterbury Tales. Excellent as much of 
Chaucer's less knowoi work is, it is entirely overshadowed 
by his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. In them his 

1 That is, / don't wish to have any fellow {wight) taking care of 
my reputation, just as if I were dead. 

2 Know. 

3 Compare the different manner in which Milton renounces worldly 
fame in Lycidas, 11. 70-84. 

4 Know. 5 Little. 6 Begin. 



60 A History of English Literature 

humor, power of character-drawing, and skill in narration 
are seen at their best ; while the whole poem is delightfully 
set off against the landscape of English spring. It is 




THE TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK 



the season of pilgrimages, and Chaucer meets at the 
Tabard Inn in Southwark 

Well nyne and twenty in a compaignye 
Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle 
In felawshipe, and pilgryms were they alle, 
That toward Caunterbury wolden ride. 

The knight is there, a high-minded warrior, the pattern 
of chivalry, — 

a verray parfit gentle knyght; 
the squire, his son, 

A lovyer, and a lusty bacheler, 
who goes singing all day long, — 



The Age of Chaucer 61 

He was as fresh as is the month of May; 

the dainty prioress, who 

Ne wette hir fyngres in hir sauce depe ; 

the hunting monk and the easy-going friar; the poor 
parson, active in good works, — 

But Cristes lore, and his apostles' twelve, 
He taughte, but first he f olwed it hymselve ; 

the spare Oxford scholar, who would rather 

have at his beddes heed 
Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed 
Of Aristotle and his philosophye, 
Than robes riche, or fithele, 1 or gay sautrye ; 2 

the jolly wife of Bath, with her red face, broad hat, and 
hearty laughter; the stout, red-bearded miller; the 
" smooth," hypocritical pardoner; and, dropping furtively 
behind as they start to ride on their way, the lean and 
" colerik " reeve. But to know these interesting folk 
and the others who journey with them, we must follow 
them with Chaucer over the Kentish downs and must 
hear them tell their characteristic tales. 

The plan of The Canterbury Tales is put into the mouth 
of Harry Bailey, the host at the Tabard, who suggests 
that each member of the company tell two tales going and 
two returning and who promises a free dinner to the one 
that " bereth hym best of alle." The first lot falls to the 
knight, who tells the story of the two noble kinsmen, 

1 Fiddle. 

2 Psaltery, a musical instrument. 



62 A History of English Literature 




THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 
From a painting by Thomas Stothard 

Palamon and Arcite. The others * take their turn, till 
twenty-four stories have been told. 2 Here Chaucer 
breaks off, but though one regrets that the book was not 
finished, the monumental fragment amply justifies the 
fame which the poet did not seek, but won. 

OTHER POETS. 

Contemporary with Chaucer and for a long time con- 
sidered as great a poet, was John Gower, — " moral 
Cower/' as Chaucer called him. He wrote with skill in 
Latin, French, and English; and his Confessio A mantis 
bears the distinction of being the first English poem to be 
translated into foreign languages. Gower, however, 
lacked Chaucer's vivacity and knowledge of the world; 
his work is learned to the point of pedantry. 

*The beginner should read at least the Nun's Priest's Tale of 
"Chauntecler and Pertelote " and the Clerk's Tale of "Patient 
Griselda." 

2 The Squire's Tale is left " half-told." 



The Age of Chaucer 



63 




THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 



Among the followers of Chaucer the most conspicuous 
are John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve, both of 
whom wrote in the early fifteenth century. In their writ- 
ings they show that the Chaucerian tradition was well 
fixed: from now on end-rime and the language of the 
Thames valley predominate in English literature. 

It is largely on this account that Scottish poetry of 
the same date, in the Northumbrian dialect, seems old- 
fashioned. During the fifteenth century, however, espe- 
cially while the Wars of the Roses ravaged central and 
southern England, the best literature came from Scotland 
and the Scottish border. John Barbour, in Chaucer's 
century, had written the long tale of The Bruce; in the 
fifteenth century King James I wrote his beautiful 
Kingis Quair, 1 in which he tells of his courtship; and 
Robert Henryson, toward the end of the same century, 
made Scotland famous with his Fables and Robin and 

1 King's Book. 



64 A History of English Literature 

Mdkyne, one of the earliest and most touching of popular 
songs. 

THE BALLADS. 

Popular songs, especially narrative songs, flourished in 
the fifteenth century. It was the time when some of our 
best old ballads were written down; and though certain 
important ballads may date from the preceding century or 
wg^ ■ the following, this fif- 

teenth century is, above 
I all others, the century of 
the ballad. 

There has been much 
controversy about the 
origin of the ballads. 
Anonymous, they prob- 
effigy of johx gower, st. saviour's, a bl v sprang: from tradi- 

SOUTHWARK . 

tional songs, some ot 
them very old; and more nearly than any other form 
of literature we have they represent the growth of 
poetry from primitive dance and song. 1 In the shape 
in which we have them, though they were no doubt 
the work of unknown individuals, they cany such a 
stock of traditional expressions, especially in the bur- 
den, or refrain, that the author at once sinks into the 
background; the story is the thing, and it springs from 
the people. In other words, something like the follow- 
ing probably took place. A tale, such as one of Robin 

1 A good example of a similar growth may be seen in the old 
negro " spirituals," in contrast to such songs as " Swanee Ribber," 
obviously by literary individuals. 




The Age of Chaucer 



65 



Hood, would be told over and over again at rustic gather- 
ings; some fellow more skilful than the rest would tell it 
in rough verse, using the expressions that were common 
property in ballad-making; others of the group would 
perhaps come in with the refrain. But the verses, as yet 
unwritten, would be changed as each successive " maker," 




SHERWOOD FOREST 



or poet, told the tale, till there grew up various versions 
of the same story, passed about by word of mouth. 
Finally, some Walter Scott of the fifteenth century would 
write out a version, — slightly different from the oral ver- 
sions, perhaps a little smoother, more literary, but still 
preserving the rough strength and directness of the old 
communal poetry. The poem, moreover, would not be 
entirely the author's own work, in the sense that Kipling's 
ballads are his; and though it might become popular be- 
cause the unknown author wrote it well, it would still be 



66 A History of English Literature 

the people's ballad: for all practical purposes, it can be 
said to have made itself. 1 

To see at a glance the communal nature of the old 
ballads one may compare the old form of Sir Patrick 
Spcns with the later, embellished version. In the old 
form the story is told simply, compactly, in eleven stanzas ; 
and the descriptive language is brief and vivid — the ad- 
jectives are not " worked up." In the longer version, 
which takes nineteen stanzas, the roughnesses are 




MAJOR OAK, SHERWOOD FOREST 

smoothed out, the details are elaborated, " guid sailor " 
becomes " skeely skipper," and such expressions as " gurly 
grew the sea " are added gratuitously. We begin to be 
aware of the desk, and the author takes on importance; 

1 For a fuller discussion of ballad origins see The Popular Bal- 
lad, by F. B- Gummere, Houghton Mifflin Company. 



The Age of Chaucer 67 

while, if we turn to wholly modern ballads, like Tenny- 
son's Revenge, we see even more clearly the gulf which 
separates the impersonal old ballads from the artistic 
productions of individual poets. 

Besides the Robin Hood ballads, 1 the most famous is 
probably The Hunting of the Cheviot, or the ballad of 
Chevy Chase, but others, such as The Three Ravens, The 
Wife of Usher's Well, and Sir Patrick Spens are almost 
equally familiar. Though the Robin Hood ballads come 
from Sherwood Forest, in Nottingham, a great number 
belong to the border between England and Scotland ; for 
the petty feuds and outlaw adventures of that region 
offered abundant material for such poetry. Among these 
one of the best is the tale of Johnie Armstrong, an outlaw 
of Westmoreland. Invited by the Scottish king to Edin- 
burgh, poor Johnie is blinded by the honor, — 

Never was I sent for before any king, 

My father, my grandfather, nor none but mee. 

His men, he says, shall be dressed to suit the great occa- 
sion, — 

Every won of you shall have his velvett coat, 

Laced with silver lace so white ; 
O the golden bands an about your necks, 

Black hatts, white feathers, all alyke. 

But when he and his eightscore men come before the king, 
they are called traitors and are promised a speedy hang- 
ing. 

1 For a definition of the Ballad, as a form of poetry, see appen- 
dix, p. 410. 



68 A History, of English Literature 

But Johnie had a bright sword by his side, 
And it was made of the mettle so free, 

That had not the king stept his foot aside, 

He had smitten his head from his faire bodde. 

Saying, " Fight on, my merry men all, 

And see that none of you be taine ; 
For rather than men shall say we were hangd, 

Let them report how we were slaine." 

" Then, God wott, faire Eddenburrough rose " and made 
short work of Johnie and half of his men; and the ballad, 
without elaborate explanation, jumps from Johnie's dying 
words to the last stanza : 

Newes then was brought to young Johnie Armstrong, 

As he stood by his nurses knee, 
Who vowed if ere he lived for to be a man, 

O the treacherous Scots revengd hee'd be. 

All the old ballads have this simple directness, this free- 
dom from literary artifice. In them we are out-of-doors, 
hunting the dun deer, sailing the sea, following the open 
road. They are the most natural, spontaneous poetry in 
English literature. 

MALORY AND CAXTON. 

About the middle of the fifteenth century Sir Thomas 
Malory took the Arthurian story " out of certain books 
of French, and reduced it into English." Thus the old 
stories, originating for the most part in Wales, had 
crossed the Channel to France, had become popular in the 
romances of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth cen- 
turies, had been considerably changed, especially in the 
development of the Grail legend, and now recrossed the 



The Age of Chaucer 69 

Channel in Malory's Morte Darthur. There had been 
English versions of some of these stories, as we have 
seen; but Malory's book soon became the chief popular 
source of Arthurian tales, and it still maintains, though 
older versions have been discovered and printed, the first 
place in popularity as the record of Arthur and his knights. 
This popularity is largely due to the simple charm of 
Malory's style; except in a few cases, like Sir Gawain 
and the Green Knight, none of the versions of the old 
tales were so well told as his. Some readers are indebted 
to the older versions for their intimacy with Tristram 
and Launcelot and Galahad; more owe a debt to Tenny- 
son's Idylls of the King; but many of us have taken our 
strongest impressions from Malory. Living in the midst 
of the Wars of the Roses, he looked back to " the good 
old days " when knighthood flourished, to the times, now 
dead, 

When trouveres chanted of old Lyonesse ; 

and his book is the last production of the great Middle 
Age, the age of fable and romance. 

For William Caxton (i422?-i49i), who printed 
Malory's book in 1485, was a chief figure in bringing 
about a new era. To supply the great demand for a 
book he had translated, the History of Troy, he studied 
the comparatively new art of printing. 1 His volume, 
issued abroad in 1474, was the first printed English book; 
and two years later he set up a press in Westminster. 
For the remainder of his life he was active in translating 
and printing. The almost incalculable influence of his 

1 Invented by Gutenberg about 1438. 



70 A History of English Literature 

work, like that of the discoverers and inventors of his 
time, belongs to the next chapter, for he was a herald of 
the Renaissance. 



The Age of Chaucer 



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The Age of Chaucer 73 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Chaucer. The standard edition of Chau- 
cer is in 6 vols., ed. by W. W. Skeat (Clarendon Press). A 
good one volume edition is the Globe, ed. by A. W. Pollard 
(Macmillan). The Prologue, Knight's Tale, and Nun's 
Priest's Tale are well edited in the Riverside Literature 
Series (Houghton Mifflin). The most satisfactory life of 
Chaucer is by A. W. Ward, in the English Men of Letters 
Series (Macmillan). Lowell's essay on " Chaucer " in My 
Study Windows is one of the best brief reviews of Chaucer's 
work. 

Barbour's Bruce (Early English Text Society) and King 
James I's Kingis Quair (Scottish Text Society) have both 
been edited by W. W. Skeat. 

The best collection of Ballads is The English and Scottish 
Popular Ballads, 5 vols., ed. by F. J. Child (Houghton Mifflin). 
Of the numerous shorter collections, one of the best is Old 
English Ballads, ed. by F. B. Gummere (Ginn). Another is 
an excellent abridgement in one volume, by G. L. Kittredge, 
of Child's larger work (Houghton Mifflin). See also Gum- 
mere's The Popular Ballad (Houghton Mifflin), a good account 
of ballad origin and history. 

Malory. A good edition of the Morte Darthur is the 
Globe (Macmillan). Suited to younger readers is Lanier's 
The Boy's King Arthur (Scribner). 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

The Prologue and several tales from The Canterbury 
Tales should be read. The Knight's Tale, The Nun's 
Priest's Tale, and The Clerk's Tale serve as a good begin- 
ning. The beginner can get a good idea of Chaucer's followers 
from the selections given in Ward's English Poets (Macmil- 
lan) and Manly 's English Poetry (Ginn). Several ballads 



74 A History of English Literature 

should be read, especially the Robin Hood ballads. Sir Pat- 
kick Spexs, The Hunting of the Cheviot, The Three 
Ravens. The Wife of Usher's Well, and Tohnie Armstrong. 
If time allows. Malory should be read entire and in conjunc- 
tion with Tennyson's Idylls of the King. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. J. Mackinnon's History of 
Edward III (Longmans) covers the first half of the period. 
Gairdner's The Houses of Lancaster and York (Epoch Series) 
covers the later part. The Paston Letters, ed. by Gairdner, 
a collection of private letters, give a vivid picture of the man- 
ners and customs of the 15th century. One should read also, 
in conjunction with this and the preceding chapter, Tusserand's 
Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century (Putnam) ; and 
Froissart's Chronicles^ good selections from which are given in 
the Globe Edition (Macmillan). For other works dealing with 
the literary history see special chapters in books recommended 
on p. 433- 

POETRY AND FICTION. The period is well covered by 
Shakespeare's Richard II, Henry IV , Henry V, Henry VI, and 
Richard III. Further helpful reading is Charlotte Yonge's 
novel. The Lances of Lynicood ; Southey's play, Wat Tyler; 
Drayton's BaUcid of Agincourt: and Bulwer Lytton's novel. The 
Last of the Barons. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE RENAISSANCE 

The Renaissance (or re-birth) is the name usually 
given to the transition from the mediaeval to the modern 
world. In its widest sense it implies not merely a revival 
of interest in classic literature and art, not merely a re- 
ligious protest against a dogmatic church, not merely a 
political protest against feudalism and outworn empire. 
It means what in part underlay these features of it and 
what in part proceeded from them : a new vigor in thought 
and action, a new interest in life. Yet it is at once too 
vague, complex, and stupendous to be compressed into a 
phrase. What it was, how it transformed Europe and 
made possible, as one instance, the Elizabethan drama, as 
another, the French Revolution, cannot be learned like a 
definition, but must be gradually understood, " read be- 
tween the lines," in proportion as the spirit of all modern 
thought and action becomes familiar. Here we have 
space to consider only the more obvious features of the 
transition and to indicate, by an example or two, its spirit. 

The Time. Xo exact limits can be set to the Renais- 
sance. We must put aside the glib idea that the Middle 
Ages were " dark," till suddenly, as by a magician's touch, 
all was flooded with light. The first faint signs of the 
new age may be traced far back into the heart of the 

75 



76 A History of English Literature 

Middle Ages. Though in its early stages the growth of 
the new ideas was very slow, it accumulated force till in 
the fifteenth century it is clearly distinguishable on the 
Continent as a thing by itself. Among the reasons for 
this change is the fact that a new interest in the classics, 
and a new interpretation of the classics, strongly affected 
men's idea of life. 

The Revival of Learning. To understand the in- 
fluence of the so-called Revival of Learning we must 
remember the chief interests of the thinkers, or " school- 
men," of the [Middle Ages. Though we have found such 
poets as Chaucer abundantly interested in human beings. 
the student of Chaucer's day, and especially the student 
during the three centuries before Chaucer, cared too often 
to discuss whether the Cherubim were higher than the 
Seraphim rather than what man in this world could or 
might do. Absurd as this sounds to us, we must not for- 
get that the thought of the Middle Ages was dominated 
by the Church, which, though often practical, preached 
that the world and the flesh belonged to the devil: inde- 
pendence of thought was discouraged till it almost 
perished ; ingenious and capable men, with their attention 
directed towards an imaginary world and their reason 
confused by superstition and dogma, contributed almost 
nothing either towards the development of thought or 
towards a practical solution of the problems of this world. 
The classics, at least the Latin classics, were familiar 
enough during this period, but the scholars, with their 
mediaeval habits of thought, were incapable of understand- 
ing the true spirit of the ancient world. 

During the fourteenth century, however, scholars who 



The Renaissance 77 

followed the lead of the Italians Petrarch (1304-1374) 
and Boccaccio (13 13-1375) began to read the classics 
with understanding. A whole new world dawned on 
them — not a world of knights errant and enchanted 
forestsj not a world of monasticism, religious ecstasy, and 
dogma, but a world of beautiful, living men and women. 
As they became familiar with the thought and the beauty 
of Greek and Latin literature, they themselves gradually 
changed. By 1453, when the fall of Constantinople 
drove Greek scholars into Western Europe, Italians had 
become as keen in their search for lost manuscripts and 
unknown ideas as a century later all Europe became keen 
in its search for unknown lands beyond the sea. " I go," 
said Cyriac of Ancona, " to wake the dead ! " 

In Italy, of course, this revival of interest in the clas- 
sics, — in the " humanities," as they were called, — was 
conspicuous for its influence on art. 1 But humanism 2 
spread beyond the Alps; universities flourished; Spain 
awoke to a new literature, France to a new architecture, 
Germany to a new religion. All over Europe men began 
to think independently ; and such thought bred new ac- 
tivity. This old world, as the humanities revealed it, was 
not the devil's, but a fair place for man himself to live in, 
to enjoy, and to understand. It was an impulse which in 
time produced Democracy and Science. 

Other Discoveries. It happened, moreover, that 
along with the revival of learning, and partly because of 

X A glance at a painting by Giotto (1276-1337) and at one by 
Raphael (1483-1520) illustrates very vividly the difference between 
Mediaeval and Renaissance conceptions of life. 

2 Humanism: the study of the classics and interest in the ideas of 
the classics. 



78 A History of English Literature 

it, came inventions and discoveries, which helped greatly 
to spread to all sorts and conditions of men the new 
spirit of activity. Among the most important inventions 
were : gunpowder, which soon made mediaeval warfare, 
and hence mediaeval isolation behind castle walls, impos- 
sible ; paper and printing, which played an almost incal- 
culable part in putting hitherto inaccessible books, with 
the ideas and ideals expressed in them, into the hands of 
any who could read ; the mariner's compass, which meant 
a world-wide extension of man's horizon. Indeed, the 
rapidity with which the Renaissance moved can be well 
illustrated by the geographical discoveries of the six- 
teenth century. Before 1492 the world as conceived by 
Europeans consisted of Europe and a few mysterious 
regions to the south and east; in less than a century a 
rough outline of the whole world was known. The names 
of Columbus, Cortez, Cabot, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, 
Frobisher, Drake, and Ralegh conjure up not only new 
lands, but a new life, in the western hemisphere, which, 
unknown to the people of the Middle Ages, became, with 
the Renaissance, a part of the modern world. Finally, 
though the old conception l of the universe was gener- 
ally held for some time to come, Copernicus in the middle 
of the sixteenth century founded modern astronomy. 

" Finally," however, cannot be said accurately of the 
effects of the Renaissance. From the same impulse, in 
the large, proceeded Harvey's discovery of the circulation 
of the blood, in 1628, Xewton's discovery of the law of 
gravitation, in 1685, and — if " finally " is to be used — 

1 The Ptolemaic, which held that the earth, surrounded by the 
sun, moon, and planets, was the fixed center of the universe. 



JEttri* Miverj presenting his Book k Caxtm his Printer 
. t# £dtv,4' &c Quern Se Frmce ; from a ettrum MS. in the, 
jtirekbisheps library at Lambeth , The Portrait of the ■ 
Frmm (a£terwf*£a^\$* i is the only m-e ImmmmivmJe. 
has been enarared b%, Yertne ammo §ie^teods of the 
Mings .The Fersmi in a. Cap & Hebe of State isprobMy 
Mithard Doize of Chourrster, as he resemhUs the Kimet * 
S: as CZarmce was. always too great 'an- Mnmoy of the 
Quern, to be MsMmiasiud by her Brother. The Soofc 
was printed in 14.}'} ~ when Clarence was in Trelomi f 
1 the he<?zmwu? of the tuzxt %teer he waj omrJer\i. 



The Renaissance 



8l 



the whole development of modern science. These, how- 
ever, are entirely results and involve countless other in- 
fluences. The actual period of the Italian Renaissance, of 
the transition from the old to the new, may be roughly 
covered by the fifteenth century. 

The Renaissance in England. In England, on ac- 
count of the French 
wars, the Wars of the 
Roses, and the geo- 
graphical isolation, the 
Renaissance did not 
flourish till nearly a 
century after it had 
reached its height in 
Italy. 

The Revival of 
Learning found its way 
across the Channel in 
the last decade of 
the fifteenth century. 
Grocyn, Linacre, and 
Colet, all of whom had 
studied in Italy, began teaching Greek at Oxford, and in 
1498 the great Dutch scholar, Erasmus, arrived in Eng- 
land and became the chief figure in the spread of human- 
ism. The most distinguished Englishman w T ho sat at the 
feet of these men was Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), 
the author of Utopia, or " Nowhere," — a book which at- 
tacked the evil conditions of his day and pictured a ficti- 
tious country where men lived in wisdom and toleration. 
Utopia, written in Latin, was first published on the Con- 




Copyright photo, Walker & Cockerell, London, E. C. 
SIR THOMAS MORE 



82 A History of English Literature 

tinent, for England was still intolerant of new ideas, but., 
expressing the views of many reformers of More's day, 
the book was widely circulated, receiving English trans- 
lation in 1 55 1. 

Inspired by the same desire for learning and toleration, 
William Tyndale (?I484— 1536), a great scholar and 
heroic man, made a translation of part of the Bible. 
Wiclifs version, written in Middle English, would not 
have been easily understood by the people of Tudor times, 
even if it had been widely circulated. Tyndale's version, 
therefore, is the first English translation of importance. 
His sturdy, simple style was taken as the model for 
nearly all subsequent translations of the Bible; the trans- 
lators of the Authorized Version (1611), especially, pre- 
served much of it in the book that has been read more 
than any other volume in English literature. But Tyn- 
dale himself, who was regarded by the authorities as a 
heretic, found even sterner opposition than Wiclif had 
met. Like More, he had to seek publication in Germany, 
where Luther's reform had made much ground for tolera- 
tion. In 1535, at the instance of Henry VIII, Tyndale 
was arrested in Belgium, and the following year he was 
strangled and burned at the stake. 1 

Another scholar who showed the influence of the New 
Learning was Roger Ascham (1515-1568), a teacher 
at Cambridge University, tutor to the Princess Elizabeth, 
and Latin secretary under both Mary and Elizabeth. His 

1 Tyndale's martyrdom has additional pathos from the fact that, 
when shortly after, Henry VIII. now on the side of reform, ordered 
Miles Coverdale to translate the Bible, Coverdale frankly based his 

work on Tyndale's version. 



The Renaissance 83 

chief works are Toxophilus (1545), a treatise on archery, 
and The Scholemaster (1570), — both remarkable for 
their beautiful English prose. Ascham was the first to 
recognize in practice that English, just as well as Latin, 
might-be the language of serious prose literature. 

The Renaissance spirit invaded poetry as well as prose. 
The way was pointed by two important pioneers, Sir 
Thomas Wyatt (1 503-1 542) and Henry Howard, 
Earl of Surrey (15 17-1547). These men introduced the 
sonnet, a form copied from the Italian Petrarch, into 
English literature; with the growing feeling for classical 
regularity in verse-form, they wrote with a smoothness 
which, in Surrey at least, far surpassed the work of the 
poets of their day; and Surrey, in translated portions of 
the TEneid, w r rote the first English blank verse. A son- 
net of Surrey's, called Description of Spring, wherein 
each thing renews, save only the lover, gives not only a 
good example of the language now changed to prac- 
tically the same tongue as Shakespeare's, but abundant 
signs of the Renaissance: the sonnet- form, the delight in 
images taken from nature, and the fanciful sorrow of the 
lover. 

The soote 1 season that bud and bloom forth brings 
With green hath clad the hill and eke 2 the vale ; 
The nightingale with feathers new she sings; 
The turtle 3 to her make 4 hath told her tale : 
Summer is come, for every spray now springs ; 
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale ; 
The buck in brake his winter cote he flings ; 
The fishes fleete 5 with new repaired scale ; 

1 sweet. 2 also. 3 turtle-dove. 4 mate. 5 float. 



84 A History of English Literature 

The adder all her slough away she slings; 
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale; 
The busy bee her honey now she mings ; x 
Winter is worn, that was the flowers bale : 2 
And thus I see among these pleasant things 
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs. 

Before the reign of Elizabeth, however, the Renais- 
sance did not bear abundant fruit in England. The 
Songs and Sonnets of Wyatt and Surrey were not 
printed till 1557, in TotteVs Miscellany ; and this date, or 
the following year, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, 
is a convenient mark for the beginning of the great literary 
activity of the next fifty years. 

1 mixes. 2 evil, enemy. 



The Renaissance 



85 



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86 A History of English Literature 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. More's Utopia (translated), Ascham's 
Schoolmaster, and Tottel's Miscellany are published in 
Arber's English Reprints (Macmillan). Good selections, for a 
first reading, can be found in Century Readings (Century), 
Manly's English Prose (Ginn), Manly's English Poetry 
(Ginn), Craik's English Prose, 5 vols. (Macmillan), and 
Ward's English Poets, 4 vols. (Macmillan). Heywood's Four 
P's 1 and Udall's Ralph Roister Doister 1 are included in 
Manly's Specimens of Pre-Shakespearean Drama (Ginn). 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. Moberlv, The Early Tudors 
(Scribner) and Einstein, The Italian Renaissance in Eng- 
land (Macmillan) cover the period fairly well. Symonds' The 
Renaissance in Italy, 7 vols. (Holt) is of course the standard 
work on the whole movement; if this is not accessible, his arti- 
cle, " Renaissance," in the Encyclopedia Britannica, nth ed., 
at least should be read. For works dealing with the literary 
history see the list on p. 433. 

POETRY AND FICTION. Scott's Marmion deals with 
events in the year 1513. Miss Yonge's The Armourer's Pren- 
tice gives a picture of the reign of Henry VIII ; Mark Twain's 
The Prince and the Pauper is set in the time of Edward VI : 
and Ainsworth's The Tower of London reflects the days of 
Queen Mary. 

1 See Chap. V under Early Drama. 



CHAPTER V 

THE AGE OF ELIZABETH 

(1580-1610) 

Soon after Elizabeth's accession the accumulated force 
of new impulses in many fields produced an era which 
has rightly been called " the golden age of English Litera- 
ture." There were narrow religious quarrels, it is true; 
there were absurd fopperies, in literature as well as in 
the head-dress of the queen; but these things were partly 
due to the youthful exuberance of the period, the same 
quality that made its high hope, its " spaciousness." For 
England, like the rest of Europe, had been born again. 
The Xew Learning had stimulated intellectual activity. 
Now the daring voyages of England's sea-captains, the 
conflict with Spain, and the wisdom and magnetism of the 
queen brought about a vigorous national unity, which pro- 
duced, between 1580 and 1610, a vigorous national litera- 
ture. Youthful, indefatigable ardor is everywhere ap- 
parent in the age. Ralegh, old, in prison, attempted, like 
a careless boy, to write a history of the whole world; 
Bacon boldly took " all knowledge " to be " his prov- 
ince"; and the queen herself, fit representative of the 
time, could bandy jokes at one moment with her courtiers, 
turn to discuss poetry with Spenser or to argue religion 
with prelates, and then could give her unwearied powers 

87 



88 A History of English Literature 

to the business of the day and command difficult political 
situations. To the Elizabethan nothing seemed insuper- 
able. 

In England painting and sculpture did not flourish, as 
they did in Italy. Literature, especially poetry, was the 
glory of the English Renaissance. We shall now have 
to consider two of the greatest names in English poetry 

— Spenser and Shake- 
speare. Though it was 
natural that such an age 
should express itself 
chiefly in poetry, for it 
had aspirations and 
visions and beautiful 
thoughts to express, it 
produced, also, impor- 
tant prose, notably that 
written by Bacon. 

EDMUND SPENSER 
(?i552-i599). 

Poets have ever paid 

QUEEN ELIZABETH ^^ tQ ^ memQry 

rrom a painting by Zucchero J 

of Spenser, " the sooth- 
est shepherd that e'er piped on plains." This special 
character, of " the poet's poet," has now become true 
for another reason: Spenser has lost ground with a 
reading-public that usually seeks something other than 
beauty of verse. He never portrays vivid characters like 
Shakespeare's ; he is rarely sublime, like Milton ; his alle- 
gory is too involved to be pointed; his pastoral poetry, 




The Age of Elizabeth 89 

an accepted convention in his own day, is no longer 
popular ; and he deliberately uses language so archaic that 
his poems are sometimes difficult to read. Yet in his 
time he was hailed as the "New Poet"; and though 
many* to-day may feel that they are taking his preeminence 
on faith, the " initiated " few read him eagerly, as they do 
Wordsworth and Shelley. 

Life. Spenser, born in London about 1552, was the 
son of a cloth-maker, descendant of a well-known Lanca- 
shire family. Receiving a good education at the Mer- 
chant Taylor's School and at Pembroke College, Cam- 
bridge, he ranked well in scholarship and took the degree 
of M.A. in 1576. The next two years he spent at his 
family home in Lancashire, but in 1578 he went to 
London, seeking court favor and living at the Earl of 
Leicester's house. It was at this time that he formed 
with some friends a club for the purpose of driving end- 
rime out of English poetry. He did not live up to his 
theory, however, for his first important work, The Shep- 
heard's Calendar (1579), is in rime. During these years 
his pen must have been very active, for it is recorded that 
he wrote nine comedies in the Italian style, though none 
of them was published. 

Failing in his efforts to gain conspicuous favor at 
court, he accepted in 1580 the post of private secretary to 
Grey, Lord Deputy to Ireland. There he spent nearly 
all of his remaining years. In 1588 he was granted a 
tract of land near Cork, with Kilcolman Castle for his 
residence ; and at this time he saw much of Sir Walter 
Ralegh, with whom he discussed the first part of his 
great poem, The Faerie Queen. Of this poem, which 




90 A History of English Literature 

was designed to in- 
clude twelve books, he 
published the first three 
in 1590, and, at Ra- 
legh's suggestion, went 
to London to seek fa- 
vor from Elizabeth. 
He had already been 
hailed as a great poet, 
and Elizabeth received 
him with compliments 
and a pension, but 
some one, probably 
Burleigh, opposed him 
and had his pension re- 
duced to £50. Spenser returned disappointed to Ireland. 
The occasion, however, gave rise to one of his best 
poems, Colin Clout's Come Home Again 1 (1591). 

In 1594 Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle and com- 
memorated the event by eighty-eight sonnets and his 
poem called Epithalamion. The following year, with 
Books IV- VI of The Faerie Queen, he went once more to 
London, but was again unsuccessful. James VI of 
Scotland objected strongly to the uncomplimentary por- 
trait, in the witch Duessa, of his mother, Mary Queen of 
Scots; Spenser's satire on the court, in Mother Hab- 
berd's Tale (1591), a poem in Chaucer's style, had 
brought him unpopularity; and though the Earl of Essex 
took his part, the poet was forced a second time to return 

1 In The Shepheard's Calendar Spenser had given himself the 
name of " Colin Clout." 



EDMUND SPENSER 



The Age of Elizabeth 



91 



to Ireland, no better off than when he left. It was 
during this stay in London that he wrote his Prothala- 
mion, for a double wedding at Essex House, and his 
View of the Present State of Ireland, 1 a prose pamphlet 
revealing the wretched condition of the peasantry and 
counseling stern treatment of the rebel papists. Spenser 
was not well loved in Ireland, and, a month after he was 
made sheriff of Cork, in 1598, a band of rebels burned 
Kilcolman Castle to the ground. He escaped with his 
wife and children, but four months later (January, 1599) 
he died, poor and broken-hearted, in London. 




ST. MICHAEL S MOUNT, LANDS END 

Works. Spenser is a narrative poet, but his narrative 
is so vague that his chief fame really rests in his power 
of description and the melody of his verse. His first 

1 Not published till 1633. 



92 A History of English Literature 

poem of importance, The ShcpheanVs Calendar, is a 
pastoral in twelve parts, a division for each month in the 
year. It is a sort of allegory, picturing the superiority 

of a simple life over a court life: it favors the quiet 
humility expressed in 

Ah. God shield. man. 
That I should climb, or 'ear:; to look aloft. 

Spenser's descriptive power, as well as his deliberately 
archaic language, is well shown by the following: 

The carefull cold hath nypt my rugged rynde. 

And by myne eie the Crow his clawe dooth wright. 4 

In his Prothalamion. with its pleasant refrain. 

Sweet Thames ! run softly, till I end my song. 

and in his Epithalaniion, no less happy in its refrain, 

That a.l the woods may answer and your echo ring, 

Spenser shows that he could write good lyrical verse; 
though even here it is the descriptive passages that we 
prize, — such lines as those which picture his bride at the 
altar : 

Behold, while she before the altar stands. 
Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks. 
And blesseth her with his two happy hands. 
How the red roses flush up in her cheeks. 

Without The Faerie Queen, however. Spenser would 
1 old. -plowed. 3 besprinkled. ~- make. v 



The Age of Elizabeth 93 

have remained a minor poet ; it is not only his best work, 
but, Shakespeare's plays excepted, it is the best poetic 
performance of the time. As was fitting for an Eliza- 
bethan, Spenser conceived a gigantic project, to write in 
twelve books a "continued allegory, or dark conceit/' 
which should " fashion a gentleman or noble person in 
virtuous and gentle discipline." A letter to Ralegh, 
from which the above quotations are taken, goes on to 
explain that, by the example of Homer, Virgil, Ariosto, 
and Tasso, Spenser labors " to pourtraict in Arthur, be- 
fore he was king, the image of a brave knight, perfected 
in the twelve private moral virtues, as Aristotle hath 
devised." " In that Faerie Queen," the poet goes on to 
explain, " I mean Glory in my general intention, but in 
my particular I conceive the most excellent and glorious 
person of our soveraine the Queen, and her kingdom in 
Faerie Land." 1 

The allegory is so " dark " that Spenser, in the six 
and a half books he wrote, does not connect it clearly 
with Arthur. The first book pictures the Redcross 
Knight, expressing Holiness; the second, Sir Guyon, ex- 
pressing Temperance; and so on. Arthur, setting forth 
Magnificence, was not to appear as the chief figure of 
one of the books, but as the perfection ("according to 
Aristotle and the rest ") of the twelve virtues. One gets 
little satisfaction, however, if one reads the poem either 
for the story or for the allegory; one should seek, rather, 
the charm of " faery " and the melody of the Spenserian 

1 In the poem Elizabeth is called " Gloriana " when she is referred 
to as " a most royal Queen " ; " Belphoebe," as " a most virtuous and 
beautiful lady." 



94 A History of English Literature 

stanza. 1 With the first lines we are at once " in lap of 
legends old " : 

A gentle knight was pricking on the plain, 

Ycladd in mighty arms and silver shield, 

Wherein old dints of deep wounds did remain, 

The cruel marks of many a bloody field; 

Yet arms till that time did he never wield : 

His angry steed did chide his foaming bit, 

As much disdaining to the curb to yield: 

Full jolly knight he seem'd and fair did sit, 

As one for knightly jousts and fierce encounters fit. 

We are ready, after reading this, for haunted woodlands, 
sorcery, and fights with dragons. Spenser does not dis- 
appoint our expectation : stanza after stanza rolls along, 
revealing what Keats called " huge cloudy symbols of a 
high romance/ 5 Read, for instance, his description of a 
magic forest : 

Fresh shadows, fit to shroud from sunny ray ; 
Fair lawns, to take the sun in season due; 
Sweet springs, in which a thousand nymphs did play ; 
Soft rombling brooks, that gentle slomber drew ; 
High-reared mounts, the lands about to view ; 
Low-looking dales, disloign'd 2 from common gaze; 
Delightful bowres, to solace lovers true; 
False Labyrinths, fond 3 runners' eyes to daze ; 
All which by nature made did nature selfe 4 amaze. 

1 A stanza of nine lines, riming ababbcbcc; the first eight lines 
are iambic pentameter, the ninth is iambic hexameter (Alexan- 
drine). Used a great deal in the Romantic revival (early nineteenth 
century), notably by Byron in Childe Harold and by Keats in The 
Eve of St. Agnes. 

2 distant. 3 foolish. 4 herself. 



The Age of Elizabeth 95 

It is of small account that the poem is unfinished. Such 
a story has, properly, no real ending ; the interest is in the 
changing scene. 

This magic scene, these knightly quests, remind us of 
the mediaeval romances, and it is towards them that 
Spenser has his face turned. He is full of the Renais- 
sance, too; his imitation of Italian models, his sonnets, 
his advocacy of blank verse, in spite of his practice, re- 
mind us constantly that he is the contemporary of Shake- 
speare. Still, a little earlier than most other Elizabethans 
of note, he stands out conspicuously as the poet who links 
modern literature with the magic, faery past. Knight- 
hood is dead, but Spenser gives us a last, splendid pic- 
ture. 1 

OTHER ELIZABETHAN POETS. 

Sir Walter Ralegh (?i552-i6i8) was a true 
Elizabethan. Courtier, sea-captain, explorer, chemist, 
statesman, and poet, he stands as the representative figure 
of his times. Though little of his poetry has been pre- 
served, it is significant that the following generation had 
a way of attributing the best anonymous poems of his 
day to him ; and legend has it that he instituted the " wit- 
combats " at the Mermaid Tavern, later made famous by 
Ben Jonson. Living on into the reign of James I, he 
never got on well under the new regime; he was an 
Elizabethan to the end. And though much of his best 
writing was done during his imprisonment under James, 
his style, as well as his manner of life, connects him 

1 A few years after Spenser's death, the Spaniard Cervantes ridi- 
culed in Don Quixote the outworn chivalry. 



96 A History of English Literature 

with the sixteenth, rather than the seventeenth, century. 
How well he could write is clear from the lines he penned 
the night before his execution : 

Even such is time, that takes on trust 
Our youth, our joys, our all we have, 
And pays us but with earth and dust; 
Who, in the dark and silent grave, 
When we have wandered all our ways, 
Shuts up the story of our days. 
But from this earth, this grave, this dust, 
My God shall raise me up, I trust. 

Ralegh's literary fame rests chiefly on his unfinished 
History of the World. His prose at its best is poetical, 
sonorous ; the book, however, has very little value as his- 
tory. A good example of this poetical prose of Ralegh's 

is his famous apostrophe to death : 

O eloquent, just, and mighty death ! whom none could ad- 
vise, thou hast perswaded; what none hath dared, thou hast 
done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast 
cast out of the world and despised : thou hast drawne together 
all the farre-stretched greatness, all the pride, crueltie, and am- 
bition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow 
words, Hie jaeet. 

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) was another typical 
Elizabethan. He stands more than any man of his age 
as the type of true gentleman, whose courtesy is well 
symbolized by the story that tells how, wounded on the 
battlefield, he gave his cup of water to a dying soldier. 
Like Ralegh, he is now known for what he did, rather 
than for what he wrote; but his powers as a poet seem 
to have cast a veritable spell over the writers of the early 



The Age of Elizabeth 97 

seventeenth century ; and well they might, for he was the 
first great Elizabethan, besides Spenser, to write with the 
skill so abundantly shown in the last fifteen years of his 
own century. Sidney's poetry is best remembered in 
his Astrophel and Stella sonnets, some of which gain a 
rightful place in every good anthology of English verse. 
The sonnet on Sleep is very near to Shakespeare, not 
only in its suggestion of the lines on sleep in Macbeth, but 
in its excellence as poetry. 

Come, Sleep ! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace, 
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, 
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release, 
Th' indifferent judge between the high and low; 
With shield of proof shield me from out the prease L 
Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw: 

make in me those civil wars to cease ; 

1 will good tribute pay, if thou do so. 

Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed, 
A chamber deaf of noise and blind of light, 
A rosy garland and a weary head: 
And if these things, as being thine in right, 
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me, 
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see. 

This sonnet, moreover, is an excellent illustration of the 
Elizabethan love of imagery, of piled-up figures of 
speech. 2 

Sidney's prose is not less important than his verse. 
His Apologie for Poetrie, in answer to Stephen Gosson's 
The School of Abuse, is a fine defense of the nobleness 

1 throng. 

2 Compare Shakespeare's lines in Macbeth (II, ii) especially, but 
also his sonnets and countless examples from his plays. 



98 A History of English Literature 



of true poetry. His Arcadia, a prose romance inter- 
spersed with eclogues, amounts to very little as a tale, 
but was nevertheless very popular during the last years 
of Elizabeth's reign, largely on account of its elaborate 
and fanciful style. 1 

Michael Drayton (1563-1631) is better remem- 
bered for his stirring 
Ballad of Agincourt 
than for his long geo- 
graphical poem, Polyol- 
bion. George Chap- 
man (?i557-i634), 
playwright as well as 
poet, takes his chief 
fame from his transla- 
tion of Homer, so won- 
derfully praised by 
Keats. 

To select these poets, 
however, to the exclu- 
sion of many others, 
such as Daniel, War- 
ner, Greene, Lyly, 
Lodge, Marlowe, 2 and Campion, is to make invidious dis- 
tinction. In a larger book all would have important 
places. Indeed, few periods in the whole range of Eng- 
lish literature have produced so much good lyric poetry 
as appeared in the last twenty years of Elizabeth's reign. 
Writing verses was considered part of the equipment of 

1 See Euphuism, p. ioo. 

2 Several poets were also playwrights; see pp. 116-119. 




THE DEATH OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 



The Age of Elizabeth 99 

Elizabethan gentlemen; and they seem to have had not 
only training in verse-making, but a positive instinct for 
it, an instinct which, among many extravagant " con- 
ceits,'' broke out in such lines as Marlowe's 

By shallow rivers, to whose falls 
Melodious birds sing madrigals. 

William Shakespeare x (1 564-1616). Though 
Shakespeare's chief distinction is in the drama, he made 
his first literary fame, not as a playwright, but as a poet, 
the author of Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape 
of Lucrece (1594). His Sonnets, written before 1598, 2 
and the songs scattered through his plays would them- 
selves place him in the first rank of contemporary poets. 
Take the vivid winter picture from Love's Labours Lost, 
beginning 

\\ 'hen icicles hang by the wall. 

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, 

or Amiens' song, full of open-air companionship, in As 
You Like It, 

Under the Greenwood tree 
Who loves to lie with me, 

or the solemn, musical dirge in The Tempest, 

Full fathom five thy father lies: 
Of his bones are coral made, — 

and seek in all Elizabethan literature for songs more real 

1 For Shakespeare's life and dramatic work, see p. 119. 

2 Published 1609. 



100 A History of English Literature 

or more melodious. A good illustration of this very 
point is the song from Cymbeline, beginning " Hark^ 

hark! the lark." Several years before, Lyly had written 
a beautiful song in which he used language that Shake- 
speare must have known : 

Who is 't now we hear? 
Xone but the lark so shrill and clear; 
Now at heaven's gates she claps her wings, 
The morn not waking till she sings. 

Xow read Shakespeare's lines and see how he trans- 
muted what he touched to gold : 

Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings, 

And Phoebus 'gins arise, 
His steeds to water at those springs 

On chaliced flowers that lies ; 
And winking Mary-buds begin 

To ope their golden eyes : 
With everything that pretty is 

My lady sweet arise, 
Arise, arise. 

But, as Edward Dowden says, " it is almost an imper- 
tinence to speak " of these songs. "If they do not make 
their own way, like the notes in the wildwood, no words 
will open the dull ear to take them in." 

EUPHUISM. 

The fanciful style of Sidney's Arcadia expressed a 
common characteristic of the age. The same thing 
breaks out in the extravagant titles of Elizabethan song- 
books ; 1 in Shakespeare's delight in puns and odd turns 

1 Such as The Paradyse of Dainty Devises (1576) and A Hande- 

full of Pleasant Delites (1584). 



The Age of Elizabeth 101 

of expression; especially in the festivals of the court. 
John Lyly (i 554-1606) set the fashion in his prose 
work called Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit (1579). The 
chief features of the euphuistic style are its labored an- 
tithesis, its alliteration, and its lengthy, elaborate similes 
— a sort of verbal gymnastics. One example will show 
the elaborate manner : " For as by basil the scorpion is 
engendered and by means of the same herb destroyed: so 
love, which by time and fancy is bred in an idle head, is 
by time and fancy banished from the heart." The allit- 
eration is not so common as the antithesis and simile, but 
there are frequent instances, as : "I have loved you 
long, and now at the length I must leave you, whose hard 
heart I will not impute to discourtesy, but to destiny." 
Lyly, of course, was only the chief exponent of the style, 
the man who came to be called " the Euphuist." 

Euphuism in its most pronounced stages turned out, 
like its cousin bombast, to be a very bad disease, a fact 
which no one saw more clearly than Shakespeare when 
he ridiculed it in such plays as Hamlet. In moderation, 
however, it was good for the roughness of many writers. 
Moreover, without some understanding of it we shall 
miss much of the point in Shakespeare's lines. 

THE TRANSLATORS AND CHRONICLERS. 

During early and middle Elizabethan times most of the 
prose written was either religious argument or narrative. 
Of the former much perished with the controversies that 
gave it birth. Foxe's Acts and Monuments (1563) or 
Book of Martyrs, however, was long popular with 
Protestants, for it sets forth with vigor and prejudice the 



102 A History of English Literature 

stories of martyrs burned in Mary's reign. While its 
religious nature gave it value in its own day, its worth to 
us lies in the vivid narrative. Of great popularity, too, 
were the narratives — translations from the classics and 
from Italian, and the " chronicles " of English history. 
These were of great service to Shakespeare and other 
playwrights, who drew on them for most of the material 
of their plots. Paynter's Palace of Pleasure (1567) put 
into English such tales as Boccaccio had told in his 
Decameron; Sir Thomas North made a translation 

(1579) of a French version of Plutarch's Lives; and 
Holinshed's Chronicle (1577) and Stowe's Chronicle 

(1580) gave again the half-legendary story of Britain. 
To these two chronicles alone Shakespeare is indebted 
for the plots of nine of his plays. In another field of 
narrative Richard Hakluyt gathered together accounts 
of Voyages touching the Discovery of America (1582 
and, enlarged, 1600). Another important volume was 
Florio's translation (1603) of the Essays of Montaigne. 
The above books, moreover, are only a few — types of 
literature common in the Elizabethan Age. Before the 
end of the century a reader, or a playwright looking for 
plots, could find most of the well-known stories of ancient 
Rome and recent Italy, as well as England's history, 
printed in English books. So far as knowledge of the 
stories went, it was of no matter that Shakespeare had 
" small Latin and less Greek.'' 

THE EARLY DRAMA. 

By far the greatest literature of this Elizabethan period 
was the drama. In the first place, it did the work with 



The Age of Elizabeth 103 

an unlettered public that to-day, when practically every 
one can read, is accomplished by books. The people went 
to the theater not only for the play, but for history, 
popular philosophy, and stories. 1 Yet mere popularity 
would not have produced greatness, any more than it 
has in modern fiction, if the drama had not sprung from 
the heart of the English people, and if the life which it 
reflected had not been vigorous and genuine. All the 
power of expression and appreciation, all the aspiration 
and experience which the New Learning and the recent 
discoveries had brought into men's minds and hearts were 
working in the force which produced the Elizabethan 
drama. Shakespeare and his contemporaries, coming at 
the end of Elizabeth's reign, emphatically took the tide 
at the flood. 

Shakespeare's theater was very different from the 
theater of to-day. The actors, we are told, " instead of 
having to shout out to the audience from an encompassed 
box," " could speak their lines, as Hamlet demanded they 
should, i trippingly on the tongue,' in something of the 
swift earnest speech of daily life, right amid the audi- 
ence." The speaking, as well as the acting, must have 
been less artificial, less " over-done," on such a stage 
than in our modern " encompassed box." Again, the 
chorus in the Prologue to Henry V asks the audience to 
imagine that " this wooden O " is the field at Agincourt. 
Further, we hear of " groundlings " in the " pit," and of 
" gulls " with their " joint-stools " on the stage. What 
is meant by these things ? How did they and many other 

1 Something of the same sort is being accomplished now by mov- 
ing pictures — though without the human voice divine. 



104 A History of English Literature 




Reproduced by permission of "The Quarterly Review" from the article on "The Elizabethan Stage," by- 
William Archer 

INTERIOR OF THE FORTUNE THEATER, LONDON, BUILT IN 1 599 

The drawing is from Mr. Walter H. Godfrey's reconstruction from the build- 
er's contract. Dimensions: Width of main stage, 43 ft.; depth of main stage 
to rear stage opening, 27 ft. 6 in.; depth of rear stage, 7 ft.; width of rear 
stage opening, 17 ft.; height of rear stage, 12 ft. 

features of Elizabethan drama come to be? To under- 
stand Shakespeare's stage we must not attempt to trans- 
pose it, in our imagination, to our modern, highly deco- 



The Age of Elizabeth 105 

rated platform, but must see it as it was; and to do so 
we must first go far back of it to the " Miracles " and 
" Mysteries " of the Middle Ages. For the Elizabethan 
drama, like all living things, was a growth. 

The Religious Drama. The English drama had its 
chief origin in the Church. 1 Strange as this may seem 
when we compare the Church and the theater of to-day, 
it was very natural in the Middle Ages, when the Church 
took care of all of the instruction and of most of the 
amusements of the people. From song and dance, 
usually in celebration of victory, the villagers up and 
down England had no doubt come, at a very early time, 
to give crude representations of their heroes and mimic 
pictures of their local buffoons. This sort of drama, if 
it may be called such, probably preceded church plays, 
but without the intelligence and purpose of the Church 
it might have remained casual and crude. Certainly at a 
very early date the church festivals, the rites of which 
were dramatic in themselves, began to be made both 
popular and instructive by tableaux. At Christmas, for 
instance, the scene of the wise men at the manger would 
be represented by priests and their acolytes; each impor- 
tant festival — Easter, Whitsuntide, Michaelmas — came 
to have first its pictures, then its tableaux; and it was a 
natural step from tableaux to acting, at first in dumb 
show, then with words. After the Norman invasion the 
development was marked, on account of the closer touch 
with France, where church plays were already common ; 
and by the end of the twelfth century plays dealing 

1 In most countries the earliest dramatic forms are connected with 
religious festivals. 



106 A History of English Literature 

with Biblical subjects were frequently acted in English 
churches. As these " liturgical offices " grew in impor- 
tance and elaborateness, they ceased to be part of the 
service, though for a long time they were given by the 
priests, either inside the church, usually about a pillar 
of the main aisle, or just outside, on a platform erected 
at the south transept. 

" Miracles " was the name given to these plays after 
they grew to be more than " liturgical offices." They 
presented stories taken from the Old Testament or from 
the lives of the saints. Those dealing with Gospel events 
only, particularly the Nativity, the Passion, and the 
Resurrection, were sometimes called " Mysteries," but 
the two words are used loosely, almost interchangeably, to 
describe the religious plays which in England flourished 
from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. 

Simplicity is the chief mark of these early plays. 
Sometimes they seem very crude to us. For instance, in 
The Creadon of Eve, with the Epcpellyng of Adam and 
Eve out of Paradyce, God is made to say : 

A ribbe out of mannys syde I do here take; 

Both flesche and bone I do thys creatur blysse; 
And a woman I fourme, to be his make, 1 

Semblable to man; beholde here she ys. 

Yet we must not forget the simplicity of the audience 
and the sincerity with which they listened to the terrible 
voice of God. Many plays, long after they had left the 
precincts of the Church, retained the pointed moral, if 
not the actual benediction, at the end. Here and there a 

x mate 



The Age of Elizabeth 107 

bit of foolery, as Xoah's beating his wife for talking too 
much, was introduced to keep up the interest of the 
crowd ; but the main effort was serious, and the attention 
of the audience was never far from the reverence of 
communicants. 1 

In the thirteenth century, Miracles came little by little 
to be taken from the hands of the clergy, and by the latter 
part of the fourteenth century they were acted almost 
entirely by the different guilds, or unions of craftsmen. 
These companies went from town to town with large 
wagons, called " pageants," on which they set up a stage 
in the market-place. Frequently they gave their plays in 
cycles : that is, one company, say of carpenters, would 
present the story of the creation, another, say of tailors, 
the story of Abraham and Isaac, — and so on; till in the 
course of a week the citizens of a particular town, as the 
wonderful pageants rolled up and passed on, might see 
enacted the whole story of the Bible. 

Moralities. Later than the Miracle Play, and a 
modification of it, came the Morality, in which man, the 
central figure, was beset by personified vices, such as 
Sloth, Intemperance, and aided by personified virtues, 
such as Reason, Honest Recreation, till finally Satan was 
trodden under foot. Such characters of course lacked 
the vivid individuality of Biblical personages, most of 
the Moralities proved very heavy and tedious, 2 and buf- 
foonery was often introduced to enliven them. Thus we 

1 An elaborate Miracle Play is still given every ten years by the 
peasants of Oberammergau in Bavaria. 

2 Everyman, recently revived with great success, is a notable ex- 
ception. 



108 A History of English Literature 

get the Vice, not an incarnation of evil, but a clownish 
fellow, who frequently won applause by beating the devil 
or any one else with his lath-sword, and who was the 
direct ancestor of the Shakespearean Fool. 1 

Interludes. While the Moralites were still popular, 
the Interludes appeared. These, as their name implies, 
were "plays between," — little humorous sketches, some- 
times between the acts of more serious plays, sometimes 
between the courses at a great nobleman's banquet. A 
well-known example is The Foure PP, " a newe and very 
mery Enterlude of A Palmer, A Pardoner, A Potecary, 
A Pedlar." But these Interludes carried some of the 
religious convention of the older plays, and The Foure PP 
ends with its benediction : 

Besechynge our Lorde to prosper you all 
In the fayth of hys Church Universall ! 

Plays, however, were gradually growing secular; so 
that by the reign of Edward VI the first English comedy, 
Ralph Royster Doyster, appeared. The old religious 
drama, starting with the Church, passing into secular 
hands, assimilating the horse-play of village dances, and 
finally losing its identity in the Interlude, which under 
John Heywood (about 1540) became a play by itself, was 
the chief ancestor of the farcical side of Elizabethan 
comedy. In nearly every one of Shakespeare's plays 

1,1 Like to the old Vice, — 
Who, with dagger of lath. 
In his rage and his wrath 
Cries, ah. ha! to the devil." 

:. IV. u. 



The Age of Elizabeth 109 

there are characters and scenes which we shall not under- 
stand if we do not know something of what went before. 
For, though we may invent plausible explanations of the 
Porter scene in Macbeth or of the Grave-digger scene in 
Hamlet, we must not forget that the Elizabethan play- 
goer needed little or no explanation, that he saw relatively 
few plays without such scenes. 

In the same audience, moreover, which contained those 
delighted by the' buffoonery of Launcelot Gobbo, were 
others appreciative of the fine lyric speeches of Jessica 
and Lorenzo. For this side of Elizabethan comedy we 
must look, not to the old drama, but to the influence which 
set in so strongly with the Renaissance. We have already 
seen that a new lyric power, at its best in the songs and 
sonnets of Shakespeare, had come upon the English people. 
Life to them had the freshness of the dawn; their poets 
caught the rapture of it; and it runs through their drama 
like the clear song of the lark. The Renaissance brought 
also, as we have seen, a renewed interest in the classics ; 
and, realizing this, we understand how the pastoral ele- 
ment became popular in English comedy. For, though 
Touchstone in As You Like It is in direct descent from 
the Vice of the old Moralities, the general background of 
the play, the pleasant woodland scene, could not have 
sprung from anything in the old plays ; lyric and pastoral, 
it is an example of the classical influence at its best. 
Equally noticeable is the effect of the classics on tragedy. 
For, while the old English influence was plodding along in 
rough comedy and chronicle plays, the chief writers of 
tragedy in the early years of Elizabeth's reign were uni- 
versity men, familiar with the classics, and they imported 



no A History of English Literature 

into their writings many of the un-English features of 
classical tragedy. In Gorboduc (1562), for example, no 
deaths take place on the stage, and the play is written in 
stilted blank verse. But the Elizabethan informality soon 
broke through artificial restraints; so that by the time of 
Shakespeare a certain classical dignity and a store of 
classical plots were all that remained of the academic 
influence. 

The Elizabethan Theater. After the pageants in 
the market place and before the regular theaters, inn- 
yards figured conspicuously in the presentation of plays. 
These inn-yards were directly responsible for giving us 
three important features of the early theater: the gal- 
leries, which in Tudor times ran round the inn-yards ; the 
ground, open to the weather and forerunner of the " pit " ; 
and the stage more or less in the midst of the audience. 1 

The first actual theater was built in 1576 by James 
Burbage, and, since there was no other, it was called 
" The Theater." The following year the " Curtain "' was 
built. Both of these theaters stood just outside of 
Bishopsgate. All of the public theaters,, in fact, were re- 
quired by law to be " without " the city walls,, on account 
of growing Puritan aversion to " play-acting," as an idle, 
pernicious pastime, to be associated with bear-baiting, 
cock-fighting, and other sports banished by the city 
fathers. Private theaters, which had developed from 

1 Contrast the Greek theater, with its seats in a semicircle rising 
gradually toward the back, its pit unoccupied, and its stage entirely 
in front of the audience. The modern theater is an elaborate. 
roofed-in development of the two theaters. The pit is occupied of 
course, but instead of being " standing-room," as in the Elizabethan 
theater, it is the best place, or " orchestra seats." 



The Age of Elizabeth ill 

court performances (as public theaters developed from 
inn-yard performances) were allowed within the walls. 
These buildings, of which " Blackfriars," 1596, is the 
best known example, were often used for masques 1 and 
court festivals as well as for plays ; performances at them 
were in the evening, with candles ; and the price of admis- 
sion was higher than at the public theaters. The most 
popular place for the public play-houses was the Bank- 
side, or south side of the Thames, just west of London 
Bridge. Here, in the neighborhood of the rings for bull- 
baiting and cock-fighting, stood the "Rose," 1592, the 
"Swan," 1594, the "Globe," 1599, and the "Hope," 
1613. 

The inn-yards were rectangular in shape, but the 
theater-builders soon found a circular, later an octagonal, 
structure best adapted to their needs. Within, two or 
three galleries, directly above each other, ran round seven 
of the sides. These galleries, which were roofed over, 
offered obviously the best seats. The space surrounded by 
the galleries was called the pit ; it had an earthen floor, was 
open to the sky, and was without seats. Projecting from 
the eighth side far into the pit was the stage, divided into 
three parts. Above the rear part of it rose a tower, higher 
than the galleries and surmounted by a flag when a play 
was in progress. At the second floor was usually a small 
gallery, from which hung a curtain, and just above this 
gallery projected a roof, supported by pillars half-way out 
towards the front of the stage. This middle portion, be- 

1 A masque was a poetic comedy, with music, dancing, and elaborate 
costumes. It was usually given in some nobleman's house, fre- 
quently in the hall of a castle or palace. Milton's C omits (1634) is 
an excellent example of a masque. See p. 184. 



112 A History of English Literature 

tween the tower and the pillars, was probably curtained 
in some theaters. The front part of the stage, never 
hidden from the audience, was the platform on which the 




GROUND-PLAN OF ELIZABETHAN THEATRE 

A — Main stage 

BB — Doors for exit and entrance, probably hung with curtains 
CC — Second-story boxes used to represent a balcony or windows 

D — Gallery on level of second story 

E — Inner stage. FF — Stairs 
GG — Columns supporting the loft, or " heavens " over the stage 

principal acting took place; the middle portion gave room 
to those who did little speaking ; and the rear stage served 
either for entrances or, with the curtains drawn, for such 
scenes as the vision of " Banquo's line " in Macbeth or the 
" play within the play " in Hamlet. As the actors walked 



The Age of Elizabeth 113 

" down stage," especially if there was no curtain between 
the pillars, they had considerable space to traverse, per- 
haps thirty feet; and to fill in the awkward pause some 
introductory dialogue, or soliloquy if the actor was alone, 
was an obvious necessity. 

The scenery and the costumes of the public theaters 
were too simple to represent places and characters with 
anything approaching modern realistic stagings. Some 
scenes, especially in the earlier days of the theaters, were 
indicated merely by signs displayed on the pillars. A 
common device was to accomplish the same by spoken in- 
dications, as in Henry V , when the Prologue asks his 
audience to imagine " the vasty fields of France"; and 
when the hour changes to night in the Merchant of 
Venice, the lights are not turned down, for it is the 
middle of the afternoon, but the change is clearly indi- 
cated by Lorenzo's " The moon shines bright " and by 
Portia's " That light we see is burning in my hall." In- 
sufficient perhaps to us, but the Elizabethan play-goer, 
unused to calcium lights, accurate costumes, and expen- 
sive scenery, found no difficulty in conjuring up the 
scene. To him the play, not the mechanical ingenuity 
of the stage-manager, was " the thing." 1 

A word as to the actors. The men's parts were taken 
by professionals; often, however, as in Shakespeare's 
case, the actor might be playwright too. The women's 
parts were taken by boys, often choir-boys because of 
their superior voices. If it is hard for us to imagine 
Desdemona played by a boy, we can understand easily 

1 Compare the modern Chinese stage, where the scenery is even 
more a matter of imagination. 



1 1 



- 



A His: 



orv 



oi English Litera: 



ure 



aae as b:y$ :r ::;e::. These alayers -.vere bar.ded ::::: 
companies, in place of the guilds and strolling actors, 

and under :he pa:r::;age :f sue rich ::;a::. Thus -.ve 
rind "So Paul's Ch:ris:ers." " Lori Lei:es:er's C:n> 
oauy." :he " King's Players." 

T; the yuan: alays *.ve::: ah s:r:s ana conditions of 
re::ie — c:ur::ers a::d y:e:s like Ralegh. gulls 1 like 
Chester, a noisy fell:"." -vhzse :eard a:: a :::us:a:he 
Ralegh tied o:ge:her. a::: :he -v::;ieri::g razble. 3u: i: 
was :::; :he unk:;:-.v:; auiie:::e :: a grea: ::::der:: ;i:y : 
the a:aula:i::; in a::i ::ear 1::::::: in Shakespeare's rime 
numbered about 200,000; and the playwright knew in- 
timately what his audience wanted. Perhaps we can 
e::er visualize :he scene if we imagine ourselves attend- 
ing a:: Pliza:e:ha:: 'day ::: a. hue su:r:rer a::er::: :::. 

e embark a: Plackfriars s:airs. ie: us say. a:::. :ur 
oarsman crying Eastward Ho!" to the passing boat- 
men. u.-e are rr.veii law:; s;rea:;;. with :he h ruses a:; a 
oalaces :: :he :i:v, l::;;i:;a;el bv :he scire - :f St. Paul's. 

houses. ::: :ur right. Jus: be:: re v/e read; L:::l:n 



and rather vulgar 
ike our way to the 
liday humor for a 



z ='.3.r.* :e™ ::.z\: 
... ::eser:e 5:r:ki: g 



s, with the dome, dates from the following 



The Age of Elizabeth 115 

performance of Romeo and Juliet. Taking seats in the 
first gallery, we have time to look about us, for the play 
has not yet begun. The pit is already full, for it's first 
come first served there, full of small tradesmen, laborers, 
and sailors, crowding each other in good fun. Here a 
group is listening wide-eyed to the stories of a bronzed, 
rakish-looking fellow, just back from the Americas with 
tales of " men whose heads do grow beneath their shoul- 
ders " ; there another group is making merry over a 
dapper little draper, who has slipped and gone down on 
the muddy floor, still wet from last night's rain; nearer 
the stage a small crowd is calling good-natured gibes at 
some gulls, who sit on their three-legged joint-stools on the 
stage itself and evidently hope that their fine clothes and 
elegant disdain of the rabble will catch the eye of that 
great courtier in the gallery. If they could only hear 
him, as Xve can, they would discover that he is com- 
plaining earnestly of the nuisance these gulls are becoming 
and that he intends to speak to the Lord Chamberlain 
about it. But now the galleries are full, a horn sounds 
from the tower, silence strikes even the gulls, and from 
behind the front curtain step Sampson and Gregory, then 
Abram and Balthasar, to begin a street-fight that " cap- 
tures " the pit at once. Later the curtain is drawn, to al- 
low an ampler stage for the Capulets' ball ; at another time 
Juliet appears on the balcony above and wins the approval 
of the great courtier by her melodious lines : 

It was the nightingale, and not the lark, 
That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; 
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree. 
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. 



n6 A History of English Literature 

Courtier, burgess, and cobbler watch the play through 
with close attention till, finally, the whole theater is stirred 
by the tragic death of the young lovers. 

It would be a great privilege if we could really hear, 
as we now dimly imagine them, Shakespeare's lines 
spoken from an Elizabethan stage. How much better 
we should understand the buffoonery for the pit, the 
quips and puns for the fantastic courtiers, the effect of 
scenery and costume produced by the actual lines, and, 
above all, the naturalness and vividness of action and 
language in our very midst. 

Shakespeare's Fore-Runners. Between 1580 and 
1590 there was rapid development in the Elizabethan 
drama. Comedy was still largely farce, and tragedy was 
chiefly swaggering bombast — " in King Cambyses' vein." 
It was chiefly in the " chronicle-play," based on history 
as told in North's Plutarch and Holinshed's Chronicle, 
that the art of making plays developed. These chronicle- 
plays were very popular, for they gave information and 
plot — what the Elizabethan wanted far more than subtle 
characterization — and in them appeared at one time or 
another nearly all the historical subjects of Shakespeare's 
plays. These dramatizations, as has been pointed out, 
took the place of books of travel, history, and philosophy, 
and, with a similar type of play based on the stories given 
in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, they took the place, too, 
of novel and newspaper. 1 Shakespeare himself spent 
most of his early years working in this semi-historical 
field. 

The best work before Shakespeare was done by a 

1 See p. 103. 



The Age of Elizabeth 117 

group of university-bred men, who gathered in London 
in the eighties, formed a sort of play-acting and play- 
writing coterie, and set stage-craft well forward in a 
decade. Loose-livers, spendthrift, and wretched, few of 
these men outlived their youth. Greene died from a sur- 
feit of herrings and Rhine wine at the age of thirty-two, 
and Marlowe was killed in a drunken brawl when he was 
only twenty-nine. Still, tavern-roysterers though they 
were, they brought to their work both genius and classic 
culture. Overshadowed by Shakespeare, their contribu- 
tion has been too often belittled — except indeed by those 
who make them entirely responsible for Shakespeare's 
greatness ! At least they raised the English drama from 
many of its crude archaic ways; and from them Shake- 
speare learned his craft. George Peele, author of the 
Old Wives' Tale, Robert Greene, author of Friar Bacon 
and Friar Bungay, and Christopher Marlowe are the 
greatest names among these pioneer playwrights ; bufonly 
one of them, Marlowe, stands far above his fellows. 

Christopher Marlowe (1 564-1 593). Born in the 
same year as Shakespeare, killed in 1593, Marlowe wrote 
at least one play, Edward II, which surpassed anything 
Shakespeare had written up to that time. His other plays 
were : Tamburlaine, the story of the Scythian conqueror 
of the East; Dr. Faiistus, the first dramatized version of 
the Faust " saga " ; and the lew of Malta, the story of one 
Barabas, who strove for " infinite riches in a little room/' 
Probably he had a hand in other plays; like most Eliza- 
bethan poets, he was a master at writing lyrics ; 1 and he 

1 The song beginning " Come, live with me and be my love " is the 
most famous. 



n8 A History of English Literature 

left a large part of a long poem, Hero and Leander, which 
was finished by his friend Chapman. It is to Marlowe 
that Shakespeare pays tribute in As You Like It, quoting 
one of the " dead shepherd's ?? lines: 

Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw 1 of might, 
" Who ever loved that loved not at first sight ? ?? 

Marlowe is important, however, not only for the ex- 
cellence of his plays, but for his championship of blank 
verse. Ever since Chaucer, end-rime had been popular 
in English poetry, especially in the drama ; and, though 
there had been one or two efforts in heroic 2 verse with- 
out rime, Marlowe was the first to take a successful 
stand. In the prologue to his first play, Tamburlaine, the 
author promises to lead the audience away 

From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits 
And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay. 

The result was what Ben Jonson called " Marlowe's 
mighty line " ; through all his plays it moves like an 
ocean surge — whether in the picture of 

the face that launched a thousand ships, 

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium : 

or in the shout of Tamburlaine to his commanders, 

Usumcasane and Theridamas, 

Is it not passing brave to be a king, 

" And ride in triumph through Persepolis ? n 

1 Saying, maxim. 

2 That is, iambic pentameter. Notably in Surrey's Translation of 
the JEneid and in Gorboduc. 



The Age of Elizabeth 119 

or in the sad words of Edward, up to his knees in dungeon 
water, 

Tell Isabel, the queen, I looked not thus, 
When for her sake I ran at tilt in France, 
. And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont. 

About the date of Marlowe's death Shakespeare, a 
young man who had served his apprenticeship in recasting 
old plays, found a theater well developed, but with tradi- 
tions still making, ready to throw to the w r inds all con- 
vention that obstructed the vivid and the true. He found, 
also, an audience interested in life that ran all the way 
from the foolery of Touchstone to the lyric passion of 
Romeo, from the hard selfishness of Cassius to the search- 
ing philosophy of Hamlet. And he brought the highest 
genius to his work. 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616). 

Shakespeare's friend, Ben Jonson, said that " he was 
not of an age, but for all time " ; and Landor, tw T o cen- 
turies later, pointed out that Shakespeare was not merely 
the poet of England, but of the world. Whether as 
dramatist or poet, he has reached more hearts and minds 
than any other English wTiter ; and, by common consent, 
he is accorded a place £0 high that only two writers in 
the whole history of the world, Homer and Dante, are 
counted his peers. 

To understand this eminence of Shakespeare it is neces- 
sary, not only to realize how ripe the time was at the 
end of Elizabeth's reign for literary work of the highest 
quality, but to appreciate the singular excellences of 
Shakespeare himself. Something of this sort is what 



120 A History of English Literature 

students :: Shakespeare have been trying to do for three 
centuries, and the fact that they have not yet written 
the final word is the best proof of the greatness of their 
subject, of the universal character of his genius. Ex- 



an i Isabella, would show only a single view of the variety 

of his powers: :::e roust take ::::: account, also, the 
variety lisplayed in his verse and in his thought. 

Coleridge's ohrase. " oar :::yriai-:::i:;ied Shakespeare." 
:h:ugh it ewers a oreat leal, fails t: suggest the isolated 
perfection :f the great dramatist's w:rk. the sheer ex- 
cellence which ewes the varietv worth. 



■" ^ 1. 1 '_o cwarse ce ?wsur_. -ot za-ct. toe o to_*-~ w?u." i to 
which we car. really arrre:ia:e his test is to follow his 
development, t: see how he learned to use his tools, — to 
realize. ::c sh:rt. that " the Shakesreare :f heaven " grew 
:ut :f the Shakespeare f earth Moreover, if we 
are to understand his 'lays, we must consider them in 
the light of the stare : : r which they were written. There 
will always remain, nevertheless, the baffling genius which 
raised the imperfect to the perfect; but that we cannot 
analyze : we can only wonder at it 

Life. Though we krww few facts :f Shakespeare'^ 
life, it should be noted that our knowledge of him is 
roller thar. that of : titer ira:ttatis:s :f his fay. The play- 
wright of Elizabeth's time was not, like Bacon, a public 
person, whose life would be fully recorded. He was not 
even a literary figure till Ben Jonson gave him something 



Mr. WILLIAM 



SHAKESPEARES 

COMEDIES, 
HISTORIES, & 
TRAGEDIES. 



Publiihed according to the True Original! Copies, 




L O $C T> O #C 

Printed by Ifaac laggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623. 

Frontispiece to " First Folio " Edition 



The Age of Elizabeth 



123 



of that character, but was, as his name implies, a maker 
of plays, who wrote, not for publication, but for the stage, 
and whose work became entirely the possession of the 
company for which he wrote. Hence a mediocre 
dramatist might die quite unsung, as most of them did. 
The knowledge which we have of Shakespeare, beyond 
certain family and legal information, points therefore to 




Shakespeare's birthplace, stratford 

the fact that he was not considered a mediocre playwright, 
but one of sufficient distinction to receive occasional men- 
tion. 

The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, the 
poet was born at Strat ford-on- Avon, in Warwickshire, in 
1564. He was baptized on April 26; and tradition has 
long counted April 23 the date of his birth. His father, 
by occupation a glover, held various prominent positions 
in Stratford, becoming in 1568 high bailiff, the chief 
municipal officer. Shakespeare's boyhood, therefore, was 
in one of the chief families of a vigorous market-town. 



124 ^ History of English Literature 




There is no reason :o doubt that he attended the Stratford 
grammar school, the ordinary course for such a boy. 
There he would have acquired a more proficient knowl- 
edge of the classics than is now common in cow 1: est 
secondary schools. What other education he received 
he must have picked up for himself: there is strong pre- 
sumption that he never attended any other institution. 
But he must have had the faculty of turning information 
to knowledge and power : and with such a man a little 
information counts for much. 1 

But this is to anticipate. The frst knowledge we have 
of Shakespeare's doings after his schorl days is based 
on his marriage license, granted in 15^2. when he was 
only eighteen. His wife was Anne Hathaway, a woman 
eight years his senior, who lived nearby at Shottery. 

1 A familiar example, in a::::i:er rleli. is A:ra'.:a::: Li::c;0n. 



The Age of Elizabeth 125 

Shakespeare had three children, Susanna, born in 1583, 
and Hamnet and Judith, twins, born in 1585. Of his 
occupation at this time we have absolutely no knowledge. 
It is usually supposed that he went up to London about 
1587, but the first mention of him there is in 1592, when 
Greene, one of the university playwrights, refers to him 
bitterly in his Groafs-zcorth of Wit as " an upstart Crow, 
beautified with our feathers, that with his Tigers heart 
urapt in a Player s hide, 1 supposes he is as well able to 
bumbast out a blank verse as the best of you ; and being 
an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the 
only Shake-scene in a country/' These words would 
seem to indicate that by 1592 Shakespeare had begun to 
make his way as a recaster, if not a creator, of plays; 
though the " upstart " would point not only to the fact 
that he was an " outsider " to a university-bred man, but 
to the supposition that his prominence was of recent 
origin. 

What led Shakespeare to London is entirely conjecture. 
There is good evidence that, while he was a boy, his 
father had failed in business ; and it is perhaps sufficient 
to assume that, like many an enterprising lad, Shakespeare 
turned to the great city. A popular story runs that he 
fled from the lash of a neighbor, Sir Thomas Lucy, whose 
deer he had stolen ; and the story is somewhat supported 
by the figure of Justice Shallow, in the Merry Wives, an 
imbecile country squire, with a " dozen white luces " on 
his " old coat." 2 

The first work given by the theaters to such a person 

1 Paraphrased from Shakespeare's Henry VI. 

2 The Lucys had " three luces M in their coat-of-arms. 



126 A History ox English Literature 

as we must imagine Shakespeare to have been would be 
the acting of small parts, if not actually servile positions, 
such as holding horses at the door, as one story runs. At 
all events, we know that Shakespeare was an actor, and 
following Greene's reference to him, that he soon showed 
skill in making over old plays. By 1594 we find him a 
regular member of the Lord Chamberlain's company, and 
for this company, so far as we know, he wrote all of 
his plays. Again it is only supposition, but a fair one, 
that he had by this time served some five or six years, at 
the least, as actor and recaster of old plays; and by 1594 
he had learned play-making well enough to write Romeo 
and Juliet. 1 Marlowe was dead, and S hak espeare was 
now without a peer. 

That Shakespeare succeeded in a worldly way is be- 
yond doubt. In 1597 he purchased New Place, one of 
the most important houses :: Stratford; and two years 
later he acquired a considerable share in the "Globe 
Theater. It may safely be assumed that his financial 
success was responsible for his father's application for a 
coat of anus, in 1596, in order :: reestablish the family 
among the " gentry." During the last five years of the 
century, moreover, some of Shakespeare's best plays were 
written — such pieces as The Merchant of Venice, Henry 
IV 3 Henry V, and Much Ado About Nothing. On good 
testimony we may picture him now as both a successful and 
well-known playwright. Francis Meres, in his Palladis 
Tarn: a. Wit's Treasury, a sort of literary handbook pub- 
lished in 159S. says : " ---5 Plautus and Seneca are ac- 
counted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the 

1 For a complete list of the plays see p. 133. 



The Age of Elizabeth 127 

Latines, so Shakespeare among the English is the most 
excellent in both kinds for the stage." 

Shakespeare's active connection with the theater, prob- 
ably less as an actor than formerly, though we are told 
that he took the part of the ghost in Hamlet, continued to 
about 161 1. His writing in the seventeenth century may 
be divided into two periods: 1601-1607, and 1608-1613. 
To the first of these periods belong his great tragedies, 
beginning with Julius Cccsar 1 and including Hamlet, 
Othello, Macbeth, Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Corio- 
lanns, and Timon of Athens. At this time he wrote no 
chronicle-plays and only two 2 comedies, All's Well that 
Ends Well and Measure for Measure, neither of them 
comedy in much more than name. In the second period 
(1608-1613) he again turned to comedy and wrote 
Pericles (part), Cymbclinc, The Winters Tale, and The 
Tempest. The chronicle-play Henry VIII and the 
tragedy Tzco Noble Kinsmen, neither of which Shake- 
speare wrote the whole of, also belong to this last period. 
Altogether, seventeen of his plays were published in 
quarto 3 editions during his life-time; thirty-six in the 
" first folio " ( 1623) ; and three more are usually ascribed 
in part to him and are now included in his " complete 
works." 

Shakespeare probably spent his last years quietly at 
Stratford. After 161 1 his active work as a playwright 

1 Possibly as early as 1599. 

2 Possibly three, if Troilus and Cressida belongs to 1602. 

3 A quarto is a book in which each sheet is folded twice, making 
four leaves, or eight pages. A folio sheet is folded once, making two 
leaves, or four pages. Most books of to-day are in octavo, that is, 
eight leaves, or sixteen pages, to each sheet. 



128 A History of English Literature 

ceased. His daughters were married and living at Strat- 
ford ; and, in addition to New Place, he had purchased an 
estate in Old Stratford and had taken the lease of certain 
tithes in Stratford parish. He died on April 23, 161 6, 
and was buried under the chancel of Stratford church. 
" Kings/' wrote Milton in his lines prefaced to the second 
folio (1632), — 

Kings for such a tomb would wish to die. 

The personal appearance of Shakespeare has been 
much discussed. Most of the " portraits " unfortunately 
are not authentic, but it is usually agreed that the one 
prefixed to the first folio edition is a good likeness. This 
portrait, however, gives little satisfaction; the face, espe- 
cially the eye, of so great a writer, must be seen in ani- 
mation to be understood ; and unhappily we have not even 




STRATFORD CHURCH AND RIVER AVON 



The Age of Elizabeth 129 

a reliable description, such as Scott has given us of 
Burns, of how Shakespeare looked when he was talking. 
We may reasonably believe, however, that Shakespeare, 
" when animated in company/' was, like Burns, " a man 
in a million." Fuller in his Worthies (1662) tells of the 
"wit-combats" at the Mermaid Tavern: Jonson was 
"like a Spanish great galleon; . . . Shakespeare, with 
the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk but lighter in 
sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take 
advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and 
invention." 

Regarding Shakespeare's character we have, also, little 
direct testimony. Besides various rather insecure re- 
ports of his conviviality, we have first of all Chettle's 
apology, in 1592, for Greene's attack: "I am as sory 
as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because my 
selfe have seene his demeanor no lesse civill, than he ex- 
celent in the qualitie 1 he professes; besides, divers of 
worship have reported his uprightnes of dealing, which 
argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting, 
that aprooves his art." More important is the testimony 
of Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's intimate friend. The 
players had told him that Shakespeare wrote so hastily 
that he " never blotted out a line," and Jonson told 
Drummond of Hawthornden that " Shakespeer wanted 
arte " ; but he said, too, that his friend was " Honest and 
of an open and free nature," and added, " I lov'd the man 
and do honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as 
much as any." Further, we have Jonson's generous 
praise in the verses prefixed to the first folio. Though 

1 The acting profession. 



130 A History of English Literature 

we may not safely conjecture Shakespeare's character in 
detail, we may reasonably conclude that he was brilliant, 
genial, and kindly ; and we cannot read his plays without 
realizing, too, that he understood human nature to the 
bottom. 

How much we can construct his thought and his inner 
life from the plays is wholly a matter of opinion. The 
Sonnets, far more personal than the plays, persuade us 
easily that he was a man of a highly sensitive nature, a 
man who had bitter experience of " the pangs of dis- 
prized love " ; and Wordsworth says that 

With this key 
Shakespeare unlocked his heart. 

But Browning answers : 

Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he! 

Though we may feel that Wordsworth is right, that the 
inner Shakespeare is revealed in the Sonnets (even if we 
must remain mystified as to " Mr. W. H.," to whom 
they are dedicated, and as to the identity of the " dark 
lady" of the later numbers), we must take an entirely 
different position in regard to the plays. Dowden has 
found here, too, a faithful record of Shakespeare: in the 
early plays an apprentice " in the workshop " ; in the 
plays of the second period (1595-1600) a happy, accom- 
plished dramatist — " in the world " ; in the tragedies a 
doubting, struggling, " perturbed spirit " — in " the 
depths " ; and in the serene comedies of the later years 
a man who was waiting quietly for the end — a man " on 
the heights." We may confidently assume that Shake- 
speare experienced all of these phases, but not in such 



The Age of Elizabeth 131 

definite order; we must recognize that he was writing 
his sonnets, de profundis, at the very moment that this 
critic would make him happy " in the world." In other 
words, Shakespeare's plays represent not so much his in- 
dividual' development in character as his development as 
an artist. To write " Hamlet " he must have felt, in 
imagination, the misery of the unhappy prince, but there 
is no reason to suppose that he was Hamlet any more 
than that he was Polonius ; and there is, further, no reason 
to suppose that the temper of the plays gives any clue 
as to the circumstances of his life. It is more profitable 
to consider them in themselves, to note, by comparing 
them, the growth of his power as a poetic and dramatic 
artist. 

Shakespeare's Plays. Before discussing the plays it 
is necessary to recall the condition in which Shakespeare 
found the drama and to know approximately the dates 
of their production. In the early nineties, when Shake- 
speare began to write, the university men, especially Mar- 
lowe, had raised the drama from roystering farce and 
dull imitation of classical tragedy to good chronicle-plays, 
clever comedies, and bombastic, bloody tragedies, — to the 
condition fairly represented by Richard III, The Comedy 
of Errors, and Titus Andronicus. In addition Marlowe 
had successfully championed blank verse, though rime 
was still much in vogue and the blank verse of 1593 was 
still monotonous and heavy. No one but Marlowe in 
Edward II had depicted characters of Shakespearean ex- 
cellence. 

We do not know exactly the dates of most of Shake- 
speare's plays, but from a variety of evidence — the men- 



132 A History of English Literature 

tion of the plays in contemporary books, the reference 
in the plays to historical events, and the development of 
the verse and dramatic art — we can make approxima- 
tions. The following table x will show that Shakespeare 
wrote on the average two plays a year and that they may 
roughly be divided into four periods : two, of about five 
years each, before 1600; and two, of about seven and 
five years, after 1600. We shall discuss, not necessarily 
the greatest plays, but representative plays from each 
period. 2 

1 Prepared from the table given by E. K. Chambers in the En- 
cyclopedia Britannica, nth Edition. 

2 The Baconian Theory. During the past sixty years there has 
been an attempt to prove that Bacon wrote the works of Shake- 
speare, but the theory has not received support from many careful 
students of the case. Though it has never been absolutely proved 
that the Shakespeare who is reputed to have written the plays was 
the Shakespeare of Stratford, there were in Shakespeare's time 
plenty of men, such as Ben Jonson, who would have had little rea- 
son for concealing the fact after both Shakespeare and Bacon were 
dead. The argument of the " Baconians " that Shakespeare could 
not have been well enough educated to write the plays is itself in- 
validated by their other argument that we know very little about 
Shakespeare ; while their argument that a man about whom we know 
so little could not have written such famous plays is reasonably met 
by the fact that we know far more about Shakespeare than about 
most of the dramatists of his time, and by the further fact that these 
dramatists, about whom we know so little, certainly wrote plays 
which were for a while about as famous as Shakespeare's and which 
show quite as much learning. Such arguments, together with others 
of a similar nature, prove no more than that we are not absolutely 
certain that Shakespeare wrote the plays ; they in no way prove that 
Bacon was the author ; while the character of Bacon, about which 
we know a great deal, does not reveal at all the kindliness, humor, 
and romantic nature so obviously part of the character of the real 
author, whoever he was. Furthermore, the Baconian " ciphers M 



The Age of Elizabeth 



133 



1591-2 

1593 
1594 



1595 



1596 
1597 
1598 

1599 
1600 



1601 
1602 



1603 
1604 
1605 

1606 



1607 
1608 
1609 
1610 
161 1 
1613 



COMEDIES 



Comedy of Errors 
Taming of the Shrew 

Love's Labour's Lost 

Two Gentlemen of Ve- 
rona 

Midsummer Night's 
Dream 

Merchant of Venice 



Much Ado 
Nothing 



About 



CHRONICLE- 
PLAYS 



Merry Wives of Wind- 
sor 

As You Like It 

Twelfth Night 

All's Well that Ends 
Well 

Troilus and Cressida 1 

(Theaters closed on account of plague) 

Measure for Measure 



Henry VI 

(part) 
Richard III 



King John 



Richard II 

1 Henry IV 

2 Henry IV 

Henry V 



Pericles (part) 
Cymbeline 
Winter's Tale 
The Tempest 



Henry VIII 
( part) 



TRAGEDIES 



Titus Andronicus 

(part) 
Romeo and Juliet 



Julius Caesar 



Hamlet 



Othello 
Macbeth 
Lear 

Antony and Cleo- 
patra 
Coriolanns 
Timon of Athens 



Two Noble Kins- 
men (part) 



prove nothing ; .it has been shown that by the same method Oliver 
Wendell Holmes can be proved to have written Homer's Iliad. The 
facts, as well as the best credible tradition, point to the conclusion 
that the Shakespeare of Stratford was the same man as Shakespeare 
the actor and the author of Shakespeare's plays. 
1 Possibly belongs as late as 1609. 



134 ^ History of English Literature 

The First Period 11591-1595). Henry [7 [Part 
I), at the very beginning of Shakespeare's career, is 
largely in the style of his predecessors: a steady-going, 
loosely-constructed chronicle-play, with no great interest 
either in the plot or in the characters. Though much of 
it was probably not written by Shakespeare, parts that 
are usually attributed to him show a crudeness which he 
- n outgrew. The following speech of the elder Talbot's 
i Act IV, sc. vii ) represents well the character of the 
verse, with the chief pauses at the ends of the lines : 

thou, whose wounds become hard-favour'd death ; 
Speak to thy father ere thou yield thy breath ! 
Brave death by speaking, whether he will or no; 
Imagine him a Frenchman and thy foe. — 
Poor boy ! he smiles, methinks. as who should say, 
Had Death tee:: French, then Death had died to-day. — 
Come, come and lay him in his father's arms. 
My spirit can no longer bear these harms. 

The Comedy of Errors, probably Shakespeare's first 
effort in comedy, amounts to little more than farce. The 
plot is the old one of mistaken identity, with plenty of 
confused, farcical situations : there is little pretense at 
either beauty or sentiment: and no characters of distinc- 
tion are created. The verse, often riming, sometimes 
doggerel, is full of quips and puns: and, like the verse of 
Henry YI } it is " end-stopped." with monotonous result. 
Here is a fair example ( Act I, sc. ii I : 

Return'd so soon ! rather approach'd too late : 
The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit. 
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bed : 
Thy mistress made it one upon my cheek. 



The Age of Elizabeth 135 

She is so hot because the meat is cold; 
The meat is cold because you come not home ; 
You come not home because you have no stomach ; 
You have no stomach having broke your fast ; 
But we that know what 't is to fast and pray 
Are penitent for your default to-day. 

Perhaps the important thing to note about The Comedy 
of Errors is that, even in a play which gives little oppor- 
tunity for real poetry, Shakespeare is already showing in 
certain speeches the poetic power which later exalts all 
his plays, whether plot or character is the thing; a good 
example is the speech of Belthazar (Act III, sc. i) : 

Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so! 
Herein you war against your reputation, 
And draw within the compass of suspect 
The unviolated honour of your wife. 

Romeo and Juliet was the only tragedy, if his part in 
Titus Andronicus be excepted, that Shakespeare wrote in 
this first period. Far better executed than Henry VI, it 
bears nevertheless unmistakable signs of apprenticeship, 
not only in the frequently riming, end-stopped verse, but 
in its subject — the tragedy of youthful passion. The 
plot depends on a feud between two Veronese houses, 
Romeo of one, Juliet of the other; and the tragic ending 
is brought about, not by fate or the development of char- 
acter, as in Shakespeare's great tragedies, but by a clever 
device: Juliet, feigning death to escape marriage with 
Paris, is reported dead to Romeo, who kills himself; 
then she, finding her lover dead, stabs herself in despair. 
In this play, however, more than in any of the first period, 



136 A History of English Literature 

Shakespeare has conceived vivid characters. Though 
Romeo and Juliet are rather conventional types, they 
stand out with clearness : and Mercutio, pictured in a few 
words, belongs among the distinguished figures so com- 
mon in plays of Shakespeare's mature genius. In Romeo 
and Juliet Shakespeare's lyric power, apparent in the 
songs in other plays of the period, such as Love's Labour s 
Lost, frequently takes possession of the spoken li::e-. 
breaking out in such melody as 

Xight's candles are burnt out. and jocund day 
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. 

and the large, imaginative power, noted in Belthazar's 
speech in The Comedy of Errors, rises, in Romeo's last 
words (V, iii) into " the sheer splendour of speech " : 

O, here 
Will I set up my everlasting rest. 
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars 
From this world-wearied flesh. 

The end of the first period, then, shows Shakespeare's 
mastery of essentials well developed: an ability to handle 
plots, to distinguish characters, and to write, now Mar- 
lowe was dead, better verse than any of his contem- 
poraries. 

The Second Period (1 596-1 600). The great ad- 
vance made in the second period lies in the conception of 
characters, in a deeper comprehension of the main-springs 
of human action, and in verse which frees itself from 
the limitations of Shakespeare's predecessors. As in the 
first period, the dramatist gives his attention to comedy 



The Age of Elizabeth 137 

and chronicle-play; 1 The Merchant of Venice and King 
Henry V are good examples. In both of these plays 
Shakespeare shows a great advance in character-drawing, 
particularly in Shylock, Portia, and Gratiano in the first, 
and in the King, Fluellen, and the Hostess in the second. 
In both, too, he shows a mastery over verse-form and a 
power of sustained excellence unseen in his early plays. 
Such speeches as Portia's famous address (IV, i), be- 
ginning 

The quality of mercy is not strained, 
• 
the fine lyric passages between Lorenzo and Jessica (V, i), 
and King Henry's two stirring exhortations, one before 
Harfleur (III, i) and the other before Agincourt (IV, iii), 
give criticism pause ; we feel that Shakespeare now, what- 
ever his thought or emotion, can express " in correspond- 
ing speech." The last lines of Henry's speech before 
Agincourt show well, not only the poetic splendor, but 
the technical skill which gives the poetry a chance : 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 

This day shall gentle his condition: 

And gentlemen in England now a-bed 

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, 

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. 2 

1 The tragedy, Julius Ccesar, though it comes at the end of the 
second period, may be counted properly the first of the third pe- 
riod. 

2 If the suggestion of bombast in this recalls Shakespeare's earlier 
verse, we should compare it with Talbot's clumsy lines in Henry VI, 
quoted above ; and we should remember, furthermore, that Henry V 



138 A History of English Literature 

Two further points, showing Shakespeare's develop- 
ment, should be noted. The hrst is his growing sense for 
the dramatic effect produced by contrast, suspense, and 
sudden, overwhelming naturalness. A good example of 
this sudden naturalness is seen at the close of the trial 
scene in The Merchant of Venice, when Shylock, instead 
of raving or complaining in reply, says simply : 

I pray you. give me leave to go from hence ; 
I am not well. 

We shall see this power of Shakespeare's still more fully 
developed in Hamlet and Macbeth. Tl}e other point is 
his humor. Throughout his career he never lacks for 
humor, but in his early plays it is usually broad jesting; 
in this second period, especially in such plays as As You 
Li^e It, it takes on the rarer quality that is near to senti- 
ment, sometimes even to pathos: it has the "touch of 
nature " that " makes the whole world kin." 

The Third Period ( 1601-1607V In this period the 
most noticeable features, besides its general superiority 
to the other periods, are the increasing interest in the 
development of the characters and the now unerring in- 
stinct for dramatic effect. In the plays written at this 
time we no longer find the development dependent upon 
a trick of the plot, as in The Comedy of Errors and 
Romeo and Juliet: it depends, rather, on the conflict be- 
tween the chief characters and the conditions in which 
they are placed. In Julius Ccesar, for instance, the ideal- 
ism and guileless confidence of Brutus must fail among 

was written for patriotic purj 3ses — a condition calling for oratorical 
speeches. 



The Age of Elizabeth 139 

people who are determined to have some sort of Caesar 
to worship; in Hamlet, the unhappy, hesitating prince 
cannot, without tragic result, set right a world that is 
11 out of joint " ; in Macbeth " vaulting ambition " meets 
the inevitable fall ; in Lear the whim of a foolish king 
brings on a coil of " complicated injustice." This inter- 
est in the characters, which makes them, not the victims 
of blind fate, but the victims of their own characters at 
war with the course of nature, produces the highest sort 
of tragedy: it "holds the mirror up to nature." So 
great, indeed, is our interest in the characters that we 
lose sight of the fact that to the unthinking Elizabethan 
such plays as Hamlet and Macbeth were " tragedies of 
blood," popular for the slaughter that takes place right 
and left. In Hamlet King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, 
Laertes, Hamlet — all the principal figures but Horatio 
— die, with the exception of Ophelia, on the stage; in 
Macbeth, which begins with the tale of Macbeth's 
" brandish'd steel," 

Which smok'd with bloody execution, 

the play moves through a succession of murders and wars 
till at the last only Macduff and Malcolm, of the chief 
figures, are left alive. In the first act of Hamlet, how- 
ever, our attention is called away from the mere events 
of the play to the problem of the prince; and the lines 
(I,v) 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy, 

fix our chief interest, not in the revenge of Hamlet, but 



140 A History of English Literature 

in Hamlet himself. Similarly, in Macbeth, such lines as 
Macbeth's (I, iii), 

Present fears 
Are less than horrible imaginings, 

and Lady Macbeth's (I, v), 

Only look up clear; 
To alter favour ever is to fear, 

start us wondering about the ambitious Thane of Cawdor 
and his terrible wife. In either play, moreover, our 
wonder is stimulated by the background, the atmosphere 
of the piece : in Hamlet, the mystery of ghosts and " the 
witching hour of night," the spirit of jesting with sub- 
stantial, corporeal things; in Macbeth, the dogging and 
uncanny prophecies of the " weird sisters." Similarly, 
the effect of delay is heightened in the one by digressions, 
such as Hamlet's talk with Polonius and the grave- 
diggers; while in the other the effect of swift retribution 
is heightened by directness and brevity, — from the mo- 
ment Fleance escapes, the " return action " comes " blow 
on blow." In both plays, too, there are abundant in- 
stances of* Shakespeare's sense for dramatic effect; none 
is stronger than the restraint of the lines when Macbeth 
comes downstairs after the murder of Duncan (II, ii) : 

Macbeth. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? 
Lady Macbeth. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 

Did you not speak? 
Macbeth. When? 

Lady Macbeth. Now. 

Macbeth. As I descended ? 

Lady Macbeth. Ay. 



The Age of Elizabeth 141 

Macbeth. Hark ! 

Who lies i' the second chamber? 
Lady Macbeth. Donalbain. 

Macbeth. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands. 

Lady Macbeth. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 

Finally, in the verse of this third period, Shakespeare 
is at the top of his power. Flexible and natural, exalted 
by imagination till they fit the vastness of the thought, 
the lines seem to be part of the very stuff from which the 
characters are made. Only Hamlet, of all Shakespeare's 
characters, could have spoken, quite appropriately, the 
" To be or not to be " passage (III, i) ; only Hamlet 
could have spoken the lines — 

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, 
Absent thee from felicity awhile, 
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, 
To tell my story. 

The poetry of this period, moreover, besides being appro- 
priate, abounds in what appears occasionally in the first 
period and frequently in the second — " the sheer splendor 
of speech." Citation might occupy pages; what is meant 
is perhaps sufficiently indicated by Macbeth's soliloquy 
(II, i) just before he kills the king: 

Now o'er the one half world 
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates 
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murther, 
Alarum'd by his sentinel the wolf, 
Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 
Moves like a ghost, 



l_p A History of English Literature 

In the third period, then, we find Shakespeare at the 
height of his dramatic and poetic art. 



Ehe Fourth Period ( 1608-161 



The most 




rHE SHIP SCENE IN THE TEMPEST 
Drawn by J. Hambidge 



eable characteristic of this period is, not that Shake- 
speare advances or falls off in his art. but that he tries 
his hand in a different field. He turns again to comedy. 
These plays, in marked contrast to the mirthful comedies 
: his earlier days, show a serenity which argues, many 
think, that Shakespeare had passed through his period of 
doubt and difficulty, represented by the tragedies of the 



The Age of Elizabeth 143 

third period, and had now settled his mind for the " quiet 
consummation" of old age. The theme now is recon- 
ciliation through the influence of a woman; and worldly 
disaster through the weaknesses of man is averted by 
beneficent magic. In the Tempest, for example, Pros- 
pero's wand and his servant-spirit Ariel bring about what 
literal fact might refuse. The bestial character of man, 
moreover, is given definite shape in this play in the grovel- 
ing, half-human Caliban, as if to show that the baser 
powers of nature can never prevail against those whose 
lives are controlled by the magic of nobleness and love. 1 

In the verse of this period, Shakespeare shows a va- 
riety of form and a compactness of thought which are 
confusing; the ordinary mind cannot follow easily the 
rapidly moving ideas through the broken verses. Here 
is a fair example {Tempest, III, i) : 

I am, in my condition, 
A prince, Miranda ; I do think, a king; — 
I would, not so ! — and would no more endure 
This wooden slavery than to suffer 
The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak : 
The very instant that I saw you, did 
My heart fly to your service; there resides 
To make me slave to it; and for your sake 
Am I this patient log-man. 

The defect, however, is rather the reader's than the 
author's; it is as if Shakespeare had grown beyond speak- 
ing to the ears of ordinary men. 

Though this confusing compactness of thought and 

1 Compare Milton's " strong-siding champion, Conscience," in 
Comus. 



144 A History of English Literature 

phrase is generally characteristic of Shakespeare's later 

work, these plays make, through their characters and their 
temper of sweet serenity, an appeal to all. They close 
with singular fitness, moreover, the career of a man who 
at one time or another had struggled with " thick-coming 
fancies," who had felt " the yoke of inauspicious stars." 
Here, at the end come " calm seas, auspicious gales.'' 

Summary. In following Shakespeare's work through 
the twenty years from 1591 to 161 1 we have seen that 
during the first period of about live years he is writing- 
farcical comedy, mechanical chronicle-play, and two 
tragedies ; during the second, comedy and chronicle-play ; 
during the third, tragedy ; and during the fourth, comedy. 
In this development his interest grows from mere plot- 
making in the first to subtle character-drawing in the 
second, and in the third and fourth to a larger idea which 
controls both plot and characters. His verse, starting in 
the monotonous, end-stopped style of his predecessors and 
disfigured by an excess of euphuistic " conceits " and bom- 
bast, grows into a living expression of the characters who 
speak it. The early Elizabethan drama created Shake- 
speare, but he created the English drama. 1 

BACON AND ELIZABETHAN PROSE. 

Poetry was the chief glory of the Elizabethan Age; 
English prose in anything like its modern idiom did not 
develop till a century later. There were, however, two 
distinct kinds of English prose during Shakespeare's time. 
One of these was the simple, narrative style of the chron- 

1 Shakespeare's successors in the Elizabethan Drama are treated 
in Chapter VI. 



The Age of Elizabeth 145 

icles, a sort of living-on of the mediaeval prose of Malory. 
This same style, embellished with euphuistic flourishes, 
may be seen in Sidney's Arcadia; or, popularized into a 
sort of prose doggerel, in the pamphlets of Greene, 
Dekker, and Nash ; or, simple and effective, in the transla- 
tion of the Bible. Most of the serious prose, however, 
was in a kind of Latin English, as if it had been first 
written in Latin and then literally translated. The best 
example of this, as indeed the best Elizabethan prose, 
Bacon's Essays excepted, is Richard Hooker's ( ?i554— 
1600) treatise Of the Lazvs of Ecclesiastical Polity. 
The following sentence gives an idea of the special, Latin 
character of this English: "Neither are the Angels 
themselves so far severed from us in their kind and 
manner of working, but that between the law of their 
heavenly operations and the actions of men in this our 
state of mortality such correspondence there is, as maketh 
it expedient to know in some sort the one for the other's 
more perfect direction." Ponderous as this style was, 
its stateliness and rhythm needed only simplicity and 
directness to make it the vehicle of Dryden, Addison, 
Burke, and Lincoln. 

Bacon was the only man in Shakespeare's day to write 
with a directness and vigor that suggest the later English 
prose. For this he has been called the first great writer 
of truly English prose. This special, modern character, 
however, appears only in isolated sentences; his style, 
taken as a whole, is essentially the Latin English of his 
contemporaries. Two examples may be cited to show 
the two kinds of sentences. 

" For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man " is the kind 



146 A History of English Literature 

of sentence for which Bacon is famous. But the next 
sentence in the same essay might have been written b) 
Hooker: "Surely the wickedness of falsehood and 
breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as I 
in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments 
God upon the generations of men : it being foretold, that 
when Christ cometh. he shall not And faith upon the 
earthy 

FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626). 

Life. In Bacon's life two characters stand out 
tinctly: that of the unsteady aspirant to high office and 
that of the clear-headed student. In the former Bacon 
showed ability and vigor, but small power of living 
serenely in the public eye. In the latter he showed a 
breadth of wisdom and a keenness of insight that have 
been unsurpassed in English history. The love oi dis- 
play that made his public life both expensive and pic- 
turesque contrasts no less strangely with the simple 
austerity of his thinking than his dubious actions and 
final disgrace contrast with his high regard for truth. 
Incompatible as these two characters seem, they had a 
common nature in Bacon's powerful sense of fact. In 
politics, where self-seeking was the rule, he turned this 
power to unworthy ends : in scientific pursuits, where his 
service was of truth, he marked a new era in the history 
of thought. As Shakespeare is the greatest poet of the 
Elizabethan Age. so Bacon is its greatest thinker. 

Bacon was born in London on January 22. 1561. His 
father was Sir Nicholas Bacon. Lord Keeper of the Great 
Seal his mother was a woman of remarkable intelligence 




FRAXCI5 BACOX 
From the portrait by Paul Van Somer in the National Portrait Gallery, London 



The Age of Elizabeth 149 

and high ideals, and his uncle by marriage was William 
Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Elizabeth's chief minister. As far 
as family influences went, no boy could have had a better 
chance. Responding to his opportunities, Bacon showed 
early that he had a brilliant mind : he entered Cambridge 
University at the age of twelve; x and Queen Elizabeth is 
said to have called him playfully her " Young Lord 
Keeper." At sixteen we find him living in France with 
the English ambassador, where he remained for two years. 
The death of his father in 1579 and a narrower income 
in consequence recalled him to England and legal studies. 
Admitted to the bar in 1582, he was two years later 
elected a member of Parliament. In 1585 he addressed 
to the queen a " letter of advice/' full of wisdom that one 
might have expected from a man of long experience. 
Three years later he became a leading figure and one of 
the best speakers in Parliament; " his hearers," says Ben 
Jonson, " could not cough or look aside from him without 
loss." 

This early fame Bacon sought to supplement by playing 
the courtier; but in spite of his legal and literary attain- 
ments, in spite even of his friendship with Essex and his 
appeals to his powerful uncle, he failed during Eliza- 
beth's reign to gain an important post. The cause may 
be partly explained by the strong opposition he met from 
Edward Coke, who was given the appointment as 
Attorney-General in preference to Bacon and who 
throughout his life blocked Bacon's way wherever pos- 
sible. But Coke w r as not the only cause of Bacon's fail- 

1 He was not alone in this distinction, as he would be to-day, but 
twelve was nevertheless far below the average. 



150 A History of English Literature 

ure; the vigor with which, as Coke's assistant, he argued 
the case against his patron and friend, the Earl of Essex, 
on trial for treason, gives one an insight into Bacon's 
shifting loyalty: it is fair to assume that Burleigh and 
the queen actually feared to entrust high office to so un- 
reliable a man. 

From Bacon's public life one turns with pleasure to his 
private studies. It was in a famous letter to Burleigh in 
1592 that he stated the deepest interest of his life: 
" Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends 
as I have moderate civil ends ; for I have taken all knowl- 
edge to be my province." He then goes on to say that 
if he could purge knowledge of foolish discussions and 
absurd guesses, he hopes he should " bring in industrious 
observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inven- 
tions and discoveries." Here is the true modern spirit, 
the spirit which was to produce in course of time the 
patient accuracy and practical results of modern science. 
It is true that Bacon neither practised careful investigation 
nor understood some of the great scientific advances of 
his day (the Copernican, for example), but he expressed 
for all time the departure from the mediaeval attitude to 
the modern; and scientists still take inspiration from his 
keen insistence on proceeding from fact to theory, instead 
of from theory to fact. 

Though Bacon's scientific inquiries did not bear fruit 
till the next century, there was ample evidence of his 
scholarship in the Essays, the first of which were pub- 
lished in 1597. The vigorous English, as well as the 
learning and wisdom, of these essays has made them the 
best-known of all Bacon's works, but the author, mis- 



The Age of Elizabeth 151 

trusting the language in which they were written, caused 
them to be put into Latin. In 1605 he brought out the 
Advancement of Learning, his first great scientific work, 
the book which more than any other, except his great un- 
finished work in Latin, the Novum Organum (1620), set 
forth his championship of the scientific method, — " indus- 
trious observations " and " grounded conclusions/' 

With the accession of James in 1603, Bacon's chances 
in public life looked brighter. He was knighted by the 
king — though " gregarious in a troop,'' to his great dis- 
pleasure. In 1606 he married with considerable pomp 
an alderman's daughter, of whom little is known. More- 
over, he became a great leader in the House of Commons 
and received the post of Solicitor General in 1607. 
Nevertheless, till the death of Robert Cecil, Burleigh's 
son, in 161 2, his way was still blocked by Coke; then, 
however, he triumphed over his rival, with not a little 
evidence that he enjoyed the sweet revenge. In 16 13 he 
gained the office of Attorney General; in 1616 he con- 
trived to have Coke removed from the office of Chief 
Justice; and the following year he was appointed Lord 
Chancellor. Made Baron Verulam and Viscount St. 
Albans shortly after, Bacon now had reached the summit 
of his political greatness. 

Under a foolish king, who was ruled by an unscrup- 
ulous favorite, Buckingham, such prominence was pre- 
carious. In 1 62 1 Bacon fell suddenly and entirely from 
power. He was accused of taking bribes, confessed his 
guilt, and begged the House of Lords to be " merciful to 
a broken reed." He was fined £40,000, sent to the Tower 
during the king's pleasure, was banished from Court and 



152 A History of English Literature 

Parliament, and was forbidden ever to hold office of any 
kind. 

Bacon's way of taking bribes, it must be understood, 
was exactly what many of the men who condemned him 
had done; it was a practice of the times to take gifts 
from successful suitors. Bacon's decisions were probably 
not affected by the presents. The amazing thing is that 
he offered no defense, that he submitted so weakly to what 
was mainly a political plot against him. Great as his 
disgrace was, and pitiful as his weak submission seems, 
however, his attitude brings out, too, what was best in 
him, what has really made his fame. Bacon the scien- 
tist, the author of the Advancement of Learning, seems 
suddenly to have turned with contempt from Bacon the 
political favorite; seeing beyond his own personal dis- 
grace, he said; "I was the justest judge that was in 
England these fifty years; but it was the justest censure 
that was in Parliament these two hundred years." 

Bacon's fall, indeed, was to the world's advantage, for 
it forced on him the private life in which he was at his 
best. It is pathetic enough to find him always hoping 
for a full pardon and a renewal of public service; vanity 
and the desire of " great place " were with him to the end ; 
but though his confinement in the Tower was brief, he 
never again held office. In the leisure now at his dis- 
posal he turned, at sixty years of age, to write scientific 
and historical books. Of these the History of the Reign 
of Henry VII (1622) takes literary rank beside the 
Advancement of Learning. Soon after his death, April 
9, 1626, his New Atlantis was published, though it was 
written a dozen years before. As the Advancement of 



The Age of Elizabeth 153 

Learning had been a sort of introduction to his theory of 
science, so the New Atlantis, picturing the application of 
his theory to government in an imaginary land, amounts 
to a sort of conclusion; it closes fitly the life of one who, 
whatever his political greatness and disgrace, was the 
Aristotle of the Renaissance. 

Bacon's Essays. In reading the Essays one is im- 
pressed, as in all Bacon's writings, by the author's sound 
sense. He never rises into rhapsody or strays into the 
fanciful — though among his subjects are such as 
" Truth," " Love," " Friendship," " Beauty." Yet this 
practical nature does not limit him to narrow bounds, 
either of thought or expression. If it must be noted that 
he again and again shows a conspicuous lack of poetic 
vision, it must be realized that he handles, usually in a 
practical way, nearly every subject of human experience. 
The special merit of the essays, then, lies in their wisdom 
on a variety of subjects, their amazing compactness, and 
the brief, vivid sentences in which they abound. " Men 
fear death, as children fear to go in the dark " ; — " Re- 
venge is a kind of wild justice"; — " Prosperity is the 
blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing 
of the New " ; — " Virtue is like a rich stone,— best plain 
set " ; — " Some books are to be tasted, others to be swal- 
lowed, and some few to be chewed and digested ".; — it 
is such sentences as these that have distinguished Bacon's 
prose from the heavy Latin periods of his contemporaries. 

THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 

The Age of Elizabeth was earnestly Protestant. As a 
result the Bible was translated many times between Tyn- 



1^4 A History of English Literature 

dale's work in the reign of Henry VIII and the accession 
of James I. In 1604 a convocation of scholars was 
called, and a new translation was ordered. This version, 
which is usually known as the " authorized " or " King 
James " version, appeared in 161 1 and is still the Bible 
used in most of the churches in England and America. 
Apart from its vast moral influences, it has done more 
than any other book to fix the character of the English 
language. This power springs partly from the fact that 
during the seventeenth century there was a tremendous 
religious movement — a time when, as Green says, Eng- 
land became a nation of one book, the Bible; but the 
singular influence of the King James version springs 
chiefly from the vigor and simplicity of its language. 
The translators, men contemporary with Spenser, Ralegh, 
Bacon, and Shakespeare, worked at a time when the Eng- 
lish language was in the fresh vigor of a new youth — a 
national tongue, yet flexible, unhampered by long usage. 
Wise enough, moreover, to retain the best features of 
former translations — the rough vigor of Tyndale, for 
example, and the sonorous words of the Rhemish New 
Testament — they were able to express memorably such 
different parts as the wild triumph-song of Deborah, the 
simple story of Ruth, the thunderous outbursts of Isaiah, 
and the educated discourses of Paul. So great has the 
literary influence of the Bible been that without a knowl- 
edge of it we should miss much of the charm and force 
in the best English prose of the past three centuries; to- 
gether with the Book of Common Prayer (Edward VI) 
it has been the informing power of English prose style. 
We recognize it not only in countless direct quotations, 



The Age of Elizabeth 155 

but in the very fiber of the sentences, the turn of the 
phrase. Notice, for example, the indebtedness to the 
Bible in the following sentence from Ruskin : " And 
mysteries and presences, innumerable, of living things, — 
these may yet be here your riches; untormenting and 
divine; serviceable for the life that now is; nor, it may 
be, without promise of that which is to come." 1 Notice, 
furthermore, that not merely such phrases as " that which 
is to come" give the impression of Biblical influence; 
there is also the simple dignity of expression which is 
our peculiar inheritance from our English Bible. 

1 From The Crown of Wild Olive. 



156 A History of English Literature 









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158 A History of English Literature 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Spenser. A good life of Spenser is by 
Church, in the EtiglisJi Men of Letters Series (Macmillan). 
The most satisfactory edition of his works in one volume is the 
Globe (Macmillan). 

Good selections from Sidney, Ralegh, Drayton, Lyly, 
and other writers of this period may be found in Ward's Eng- 
lish Poets, 4 vols. (Macmillan), and Craik's English Prose, 5 
vols. (Macmillan). Century Readings (Century) covers the 
ground well in a one-volume edition. 

The Early Drama. A good selection of old plays is 
Manly's Specimens of Pre-Shakespearean Drama, 2 vols. 
(Ginn). Marlowe's plays are published, with a good introduc- 
tion by Symonds, in the Mermaid Series (Scribner) ; also in 
Everyman's Library (Dutton). 

Shakespeare. The fullest life is by Sidney Lee (Mac- 
millan) : a good shorter biography is that by Walter Raleigh 
(English Men of Letters Series). The Facts about Shake- 
speare, by Xeilson and Thorndike, a supplementary volume 
to The Tudor Shakespeare (Macmillan), is a compact state- 
ment of the sources of Shakespeare biography and contains 
a good bibliography. A similarly useful volume is A Life of 
Shakespeare, by Oliphant Smeaton, Everyman's Library (Dut- 
ton). 

The fullest edition of Shakespeare's works is the Variorum, 
by H. H. Furness (Lippincott) ; the notes contain a collec- 
tion of the best criticism, textual and general; but so far 
only about half of the plays have been covered. Among the 
numerous other editions, one of the best is The Tudor Shake- 
speare (Macmillan). Hudson's revised edition (Ginn) and 
Rolfe's (American Book Co.) are also adapted to school use. 
An interesting reprint of the First Folio Edition has been 
edited by Porter and Clarke (Crowell). Good one- volume edi- 



The Age of Elizabeth 159 

tions are the Globe (Macmillan) arid the Cambridge (Houghton 
Mifflin). Shakespeare's Principal Plays (Century Co.) gives 
a good selection of twenty plays in one volume. 

A good introduction to a study of Shakespeare criticism 
may be gained from the comments quoted in the Variorum 
Edition. Other helpful books are: Dowden's Shakespeare: 
His Mind and Art (Harper) ; Wendell's William Shakespeare 
(Scribner) ; Baker's The Development of Shakespeare as a 
Dramatist (Macmillan) ; and Brander Matthews' Shakespeare 
as a Playwright (Scribner). The essay on Shakespeare by 
Emerson, in Representative Men, that by Lowell, in Among 
My Books, and Coleridge's Notes and Lectures on the Plays of 
Shakespeare (Bohn's Library) are invaluable. 

Bacon. The authoritative life of Bacon is Francis Bacon 
and his Times, 2 vols., by J. Spedding (Houghton Mifflin). 
The life by R. W. Church, in the English Men of Letters Series 
(Macmillan) is a good briefer account. See also Macaulay's 
" Essay " on Bacon. For Bacon's w r orks a convenient edition 
is published on India paper by George Newnes. The Essays 
alone may be had in numerous cheap editions. 

King James Bible. Acquaintance with Moulton's The Lit- 
erary Study of the Bible (Heath) adds greatly to the appre- 
ciation of the Bible as English literature. 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

Spenser's Faerie Queen should never be read as a task; 
it is therefore difficult to advise a specific amount. If it is 
enjoyed, it will probably prescribe its own limits; if it is not 
enjoyed, one canto is probably too much. The Epithalamion, 
the Prothalamion, and part of The Shepheardes Calendar 
(say, "February" and "October") are a good introduction 
to his other poems. The Selections in Century Readings or in 
Manly's English Poetry and English Prose serve for a first ac- 
quaintance with minor Elizabethan writers. For the drama 
before Shakespeare one should read a Morality Play, such as 
Everyman ; an early comedy, such as Gammer Gurton's Nee- 



160 A History of English Literature 

dle, Gorboduc ; and at least two plays by the " Universitj 
Men " — Peele's David and Bethsabe and Marlowe's Edward 
II are recommended. For Shakespeare, if the student's time 
is limited, he is advised not to read all the plays hastily, but 
to study several carefully (a fairly representative selection 
would include The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, 
The Tempest, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Cesar, 
Hamlet, and Macbeth) and to read the rest when he can. 
Of course Shakespeare should be re-read, the sonnets as well 
as the plays. The same advice applies to Bacon's Essays — 
they are to be " chewed and digested." A good beginning 
may be made by reading the essays on Truth, Adversity, 
Superstition, Dispatch, Seeming Wise, Discourse, Riches, 
Youth and Age, and Studies. For Bacon's other work the 
New Atlantis is perhaps the best point of departure. In 
reading the Bible as literature, the student will do well to 
begin by reading different types : the simple narrative, as in 
Genesis, XXIV and in Ruth; the priestly narrative, as in Gene- 
sis I, the Deuteronomist style, as in Deuteronomy V; the 
primitive poetry, as in Judges V ; the priestly poetry, as in 
Psalm XXIV ; the Wisdom Books, as in Proverbs; the 
prophetic style, particularly in Isaiah, Amos, and Revelation ; 
and the educated style, as seen in Paul's Epistles. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. Creighton's Age of Eliz- 
abeth (Longmans) is an excellent short history of the period. 
The Life of Ralegh, by Stebbing (Clarendon Press), presents 
a good picture of a " typical " Elizabethan. Further refer- 
ences : Seccomb and Allen, The Age of Shakespeare, 2 vols. 
(Macmillan) ; Saintsbury, A Short History of Elizabethan Lit- 
erature (Macmillan) ; Symonds, Shakespeare's Predecessors in 
the English Drama (Macmillan) ; and Schelling, Elizabethan 
Drama, 2 vols. (Houghton Mifflin). See also special chapters 
in the books recommended on p. 433. 

POETRY AND FICTION. Scott's Kenilworth and Kings- 
ley's Westward Ho! are novels dealing with the Elizabethan 
period. Swinburne and Schiller have both written plays with 



The Age of Elizabeth 161 

Mary Stuart the central figure; and J. P. Peabody (Mrs. Marks) 
has written a play called Marlowe. Macaulay's The Armada, 
Tennyson's The Revenge, and Noyes's Drake are poems ex- 
pressing the daring spirit of Elizabethan sailors. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 

Shakespeare. Bacon, and Ralegh not only -.vere con- 
temporaries of Ben Jonson, but actually wrote much of 
their work in the seventeenth century. The first part of 
the century, then, belongs much more with the preceding 
Age of Elizabeth than with the following Puritan Age. 
Nevertheless, it has characteristics of its own: in the 
drama after 1611 the dominant figure was not Shake- 
speare, but Jonson; under Jonson's lead men came to think 
of their plays as literary productions; the unity :: inn- 
pulse, as well as the buoyancy, of the early Elizabethans 
had gone; and, politically, a new. un-Elizabethan temper 
began to show itself almost immediately after the acces- 
sion of James I in 1603. 

This new political attitude was due largely to the rule 
of the Stuarts, which was as unwise as that of the Tudors 
had been sagacious, but it was due also t: the important 
fact that during a century of unprecedented development 
men had grown to think for themselves and to resent. 
more than ever, despotic rule. Coupled with a wave of 
religious reform, the new temper gathered strength till in 
the time of Charles I it controlled the political situation 
and gave a new color to literature. 

The spirit of reform over-reached itself, however. 

162 



The Seventeenth Century 163 

With Charles II, in 1660, a reaction set in. Literature, 
moreover, not only felt the reaction and, running from 
restraint, fell into license, but it took a new turn as well : 
following the king, who attempted to cop}- the French 
monarch^ the writers of the last part of the century began 
a rather servile imitation of the French revival of the 
Classics. 

The seventeenth century, then, falls into three main 
periods: the Age of Ben Jonson (1610-1635) ; the Puri- 
tan Age (1635-1660) ; and the Age of Dryden (1660- 
1700). 

THE AGE OF BEN JONSON (1610-1635) 

During the first years of the seventeenth century the 
Elizabethan drama reached its height. It was at this 
time that the " wit-combats " at the Mermaid Tavern 
must have taken place; and more important than Shake- 
speare in these meetings, if of less note as a dramatist, 
was the figure of Ben Jonson — " firm-footed Ben." For 
fifteen years after Shakespeare's death he dominated the 
half-literary, half-convivial gatherings and passed sen- 
tence on contemporary plays. He was the first great 
" dictator " of English literature, as Samuel Johnson, a 
hundred and fifty years later, was the last. It is not so 
much for the merit of his works as for his influence on 
literature that Ben Jonson is remembered. He opposed 
the Romantic style of his contemporaries and, like the 
other Johnson, was a sturdy champion of the Classics. 

BEN JONSON (1573-1637). 
Jonson was born in Westminster. He was set in his 
youth to learn the trade of bricklaying, but he ran away 



164 A History of English Literature 

to fight the Spaniards in the Low Countries ; and, coming 
back with a successful duel to his account, he appeared 
in London as actor and playwright. In his first play, 
Every Man in his Humour (1598), Shakespeare took one 
of the parts. During the next fifteen years Jonson 
produced many plays, excelling in such comedies as 

Vol pone, or the Fox 
( 1 605 ) , Epiccene, or 
the Silent Woman 
(1609), The Alche- 
mist (1610), and Bar- 
tholomew Fair (1614). 
In these plays, full 
of amusing situations. 
Jonson gives a vivid 
picture of the coarse 
humor of his time. 
His verse is sturdy aid 
often skilful, and the 
prose talked by his 
ben jonson characters is realistic, 

but he is far surpassed by several of his contemporaries 
in both verse and the conception of characters. This 
artificiality in Jonson's characters, however, was inten- 
tionally adopted by him, for the purposes' of satire; 
he liked to picture men as representing particular 
" humors," or exaggerated types. Jonson was a great 
scholar, and in his comedies as in his two trage- 
dies, Sejanus (1603) and Catiline (1611), he fol- 
lowed strictly classical rules, thus condemning by 
practice, as well as by precept, the careless, Romantic 




The Seventeenth Century 165 

style of his fellow-playwrights, among them Shake- 
speare. 

During the reign of James I, Jonson's masques, 1 elab- 
orate, half -musical plays, found great favor at court. 
He was made poet-laureate, was the unquestioned " ar- 
biter of letters " among literary men, and for a while 
enjoyed great popularity. His life, however, was full 
of ups and downs. Once he barely escaped hanging for 
killing an actor in a duel; at another time he went to 
prison for passages in Eastward Ho! which displeased the 
king; and in spite of his fame and royal favor, he died 
rather poorly off. He was buried with great honor in 
Westminster Abbey, with the simple inscription " O rare 
Ben Johnson " 2 on his tomb. 

The variety and strength of Jonson's genius and his 
undoubted authority among the writers of his day is what 
gives him preeminence. Of not less literary value than 
his plays are his volume of prose essays, Timber, or Dis- 
coveries made upon Men and Matter, and his conversa- 
tions recorded by William Drummond of Hawthornden. 
Finally, the world remembers best, perhaps, such songs as 
" Drink to me only with thine eyes." 

Versatile, in many ways an Elizabethan, Jonson reveals 
nevertheless a new age. In the first place, he looked upon 
his plays as literature quite as much as pieces for acting. 
Further, he strove to set up definite literary standards, 
and largely succeeded in doing so. Again, in the char- 
acter of his plays, as in the finesse of his lyrics, he shows 

1 For a discussion of the Masque, see p. 184. 

2 Though the name is spelled with an "h" in the Westminster 
inscription, it is usually spelled without — "Jonson." 



I'Fi A H:_:o:y o: English L::e:a:u:e 




. : :: Fuis .:-/- 

: is :: F15 '::-::: 

is ?::!! mire 

d in his later 

:: : nries V : re 

ere :*±:r_^ " r :- 

hi:; lr_ 5: u .he- 



sr-e.il::::.: -.'-. — :: i ie:e::i: ihe.7 t:t :uereF hevt: 
rather tha:: reuuuie i::: rhev "'ere :f:e:; ::srse ::: u:e 
sake of ::irie::e5f 5::h :he :u :t ; :: sue: =ule F17- 
wrights :- I :;::::: Z:::.::::::: Fletcher. IVelster Lliiile- 
ton. He~c-:-d. Llssiir-re: Fsi:ui:. 7:r: ir_: Shur'.e;.- 
testify to the abundance of good plays in Jonson's time. 
Here we shall have space to comsidtr : :..; a Few 

Tzjias Dzxkzs ?: :-:- : ::'_: f 5 1 freshuesi 
ani ^ciulne r .t: uii; hii 5:/ esrue-:: him me rule 
:: "'me lis: :: :he Flimbemim L Hi* F': ; ■: -.zk-:~ : 
Holidz; ::•:•: ... . IF: - y : ::•:>: ere full :■: 
true Shakespearean fun. 

Fra: : : s Z i : 1 ont ( 1584— 1616) is usually asso- 

1 .-- namt ;:: t": t: river. :.■: 5r_:rl±7 t:^.:t .. t i.= tit Li.?: 

great dramatist born in Elizabeth's reign. 



The Seventeenth Century 167 

ciated with John Fletcher (1 579-1625), though their 
collaboration was probably only in a few plays. They 
were most successful in a mixture of comedy and 
tragedy, abhorrent to Ben Jonson. Among their best 
plays may 'be noted The Maid's Tragedy, Philaster, and 
The Knight of the Burning Pestle. The last of these 
is one of the few old plays, outside of Shakespeare's, 
that are still " good acting.'' Though much of the work 
of Beaumont and Fletcher shows cleverness rather than 
strength, The Maid's Tragedy reveals an intensity of 
passion that raises it above most of the plays of Jonson's 
time. At its best it produces such vivid lines as these : 

I am not she ; nor bear I in this breast 

So much cold spirit to be called a woman : 

I am a tiger ; I am anything 

That knows not pity. Stir not: if thou dost, 

1 11 take thee unprepared, thy fears upon thee, 

That make thy sins look double, and so send thee, 

(By my revenge, I will!) to look those torments 

Prepared for such black souls. 

Fletcher, more of a professional playwright than Beau- 
mont, probably supplied most of the invention and stage- 
craft; but Beaumont was the better poet. 

Thomas Middletox (1 570-1627) wrote verse that 
ranks with the best of his time, but his plays are sensa- 
tional and coarse. One of his best dramas is The 
Changeling. 

Thomas Hey wood (dates unknown) was one of the 
most prolific writers of his day; he had a hand, he says, 
in over two hundred plays. Perhaps the best is A Woman 
Killed zmth Kindness. It has the further interest of 



168 A History of English Literature 



being one of the first plays of " domestic drama," a type 
very popular to-day. 

John Ford | i586-?i64o), the author of The Broken 

Heart, wrote with a simplicity and severity more classic 
than Elizabethan. Most of his plays, however, are 

marred by unnatural 
and horrible ( rather 
than tragic | scenes. 

John Webster 

( dates unknown i 

ranks, in his power of 
versification and his 
ability to conceive dra- 
matic situations, close 
to Shakespeare : but he 
served too wholly the 
popular taste for " trag- 
edies of blood." The 
result was coarse plays, 
with the characters 
drowned in a welter of 
blood. His best work is The Duchess of Malfi, an Italian 
story of intrigue and cruelty. In one notable scene he 
produces the effect of tremendous emotion by simple lan- 
guage, instead of by bombast, in a way that reminds us 
of a similar effect in the great scenes of Macbeth 1 and 
Lear. Ferdinand, after unspeakable cruelties to his 
sister, the Duchess, is shown her dead body: yet, over- 
come by sorrow and remorse, he does not " tear a pas- 
sion to tatters," but says simply: 
1 See p. 140. 




TOHN FLETCHER 



The Seventeenth Century 

Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young. 



169 



The dramatists that followed Shakespeare, in fact, were 
well up in their craft — in the making of plots, in the 
setting of dramatic situations, and in the skilful use of 
such devices as contrast and suspense. But they had 
little more ; they came less and less to " hold the mirror 
up to nature"; they seem to have forgotten that man 
was controlled by more than whims, situations, and con- 
flicting passions, that he was a moral being, with ideals. 
By 1642, when the Puritans closed the theaters, comedy 
was degraded into cleverness and tragedy into violence; 
and in either case into coarseness. 



THE LYRIC POETS. 

The Elizabethan skill at turn- 
ing verses carried well into 
the seventeenth century. 
Though the lyrics of Jonsorfs 
time lacked the freshness and 
youth of the sixteenth century 
songs, they were executed by 
more finished artists. Besides 
the dramatists, nearly all of 
whom, but especially Jonson, 
Heywood, and Dekker, wrote 
excellent lyrics, there was a 
long line of accomplished poets. 
With the possible exception of 
Herrick, however, it is impossi- 
ble to select one representative 
of them all; for, instead of a 




ROBERT HERRICK 
A facsimile of the frontispiece of 
the first edition of Herrick's 
Works 



170 A History of English Literature 

common impulse, as in Elizabethan days, which gave men 
the common theme of love, we find a diversity of interest, 
and the attention is fixed more on the form than on the 
thought. Roughly speaking, however, the poetry of the 
period may be divided into: Pastoral, represented by 
Robert Herrick (1591-1674) : Cavalier, represented by 
Richard Lovelace (1618-1658); and Religious, rep- 
resented by George Herbert (1 593-1633 ). 1 Of these 
Herrick was the ablest — a " phrase-maker/ 5 the English 
Horace. Such prettily turned verses as 



and 



Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. 
Old time is still a-flying, 



Whenas in silks my Julia goes. 

Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows 

The liquefaction of her clothes, 

abound in Herrick's Hesperides. A clergyman, he wrote 
some religious verse {Noble Numbers), but it is usually 
inferior to his secular poetry. Graceful, rather than 
thoughtful or passionate, his verse is best suited to trivial 
themes : " Delight in Disorder " ; " The Bracelet " : 
" The Primrose." Of the many seventeenth century 
poets who sought " perfection in trifles " he showed the 
greatest skill. 

The Cavalier verse, as its name implies, was associated 
with the reckless chivalry of the followers of King 
Charles — bold riders and gay lovers. A good example 
is Lovelace's To Lucasta, Going to the wars: 

1 Any one wishing to understand the seventeenth century lyrics at 
all fully should of course not confine himself to these three. Donne, 
Quarles. Crashaw, Vaughan, Suckling. Carew, and Waller are the 
chief poets whom space forces us to slight here. 



The Seventeenth Century 171 

Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind 

That from the nunnery 
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind 

To war and arms I fly. 

True, a new mistress now I chase, 

The first foe in the field ; 
And with a stronger faith embrace 

A sword, a horse, a shield. 

Yet this inconstancy is such 

As thou too shalt adore ; 
I could not love thee, Dear, so much, 

Loved I not honor more. 

George Herbert, the pious soul who counted himself 
and his work " less than the least of God's mercies/' 
wrote in his little parish of Bemerton religious verses on 
which posterity has set a higher value than their author 
did. His poetry is full of " the beauty of holiness " — 
a favorite expression of his; lines like the following are 
typical : 



and 



Only a sweete and vertuous soul, 
Like season'd timber, never gives; — 

I got me flowers to straw Thy way, 

I got me boughs off many a tree ; 

But Thou wast up by break of day, 

And brought'st Thy sweets along with Thee. 

Occasionally, however, he strikes a more stirring note : 

Chase brave employment with a naked sword 
Throughout the world. Fool not, for all may have, 
If they dare choose, a glorious life or grave. 



172 A History of English Literature 

THE PURITAN AGE (1635-1660). 

The chief history of the middle of the seventeenth 
century centers in Puritanism. Starting back in the six- 
teenth century as a protest in favor of purity, it took 
its impetus from the Reformation. The Reformation of 
Henry VIII, to be sure, had been largely political; and 
the Protestantism of Elizabeth had been dictated more by 
policy than by piety. Still, there gradually grew up a 
spirit of religious enthusiasm, which reached its height in 
the days of Cromwell and his " God-fearing " army. 
The Renaissance had turned men's minds to this world; 
the Puritan Reformation turned them beyond this world, 
to the world to come. As the Elizabethan felt the joy of 
living, so the Puritan felt the presence of death. Few 
contrasts could be stronger. An old man, the Eliza- 
bethan Ralegh put to sea in his fine clothes, his cabin 
decorated with beautiful pictures. The Puritan Milton 
in his old age sat, gray-suited, at his cottage door and 
meditated verses on Adam's expulsion from Paradise. 

For an understanding of this turn in the English tem- 
per we must realize the hold which the doctrines of John 
Calvin took on the English mind. Calvinism, roughly, 
was the belief that, though all men were born in sin, God 
had in his infinite mercy elected a few for salvation. A 
man never knew whether he belonged to the elect or to 
the outcast; the chances were against him, for the elect 
were few ; but it behooved him to watch and pray lest he 
lose what little chance he had. Though this doctrine had 
its greatest adherence in Scotland, among the followers 
of John Knox, its influence extended beyond sectarian 



The Seventeenth Century 173 

lines. Even many of those who stoutly opposed it took 
on much of its somber outlook on life. And though 
Puritans were never in the majority in England, for a 
while they were in control. As Macaulay puts it, " They 
prostrated themselves in the dust before their Maker, but 
they put their foot on the neck of their king." 

For along with the rebellion against the tyranny of 
the English Church came a great civil rebellion against 
the tyranny of the Stuarts. The issue between the king 
and Parliament, which began as soon as the Stuart kings, 
without wisdom or money, attempted to continue the 
despotism of the Tudors, had reached a critical condition 
as early as 1629. For eleven years Charles contrived to 
rule without Parliament ; but the opposition to his 
methods had grown so strong by 1640 that, when he was 
forced to call a parliament, to get funds to fight the 
Scots, he received, not funds, but open defiance. 

The religious question came to a head at the same time. 
Different sects, especially the Scottish Presbyterians, 
more and more opposed the Established Church — the 
church of the king. At first Puritans were found in any 
denomination, but gradually they came to be associated 
with dissenting sects ; as Milton put it, they were 
" church-outed by the prelates. " Archbishop Laud, like 
his sovereign, met opposition with opposition; a crisis 
was reached; and in 1642 the king and Church went to 
war with Parliament and the Puritans. 

Both efforts failed in themselves; that is, the Presby- 
terian Puritans turned out to be as dogmatic as the 
church they condemned ; Cromwell's military rule, if more 
just than the rule of Charles, was quite as tyrannical; 



i;4 A History of English Literature 

and a violent reaction, in 1660. brought about the cor- 
rupt days of Charles II. Nevertheless, the struggle pre- 
pared the way for later, more permanent reforms : the suc- 
cessful Revolution of 16S8 and the growing religious 

toleration of the following century. Chiefly, the nation 
was completely changed: " Merrie England" was for- 
ever a thing of the past; the mark of Puritanism is visible 
even to-day. 

Puritanism had a strangling effect on literature. For 
besides closing the theaters, it taught men to distrust 
music and art. The result was that for twenty years 
literature was largely confined to a great body of con- 
troversial pamphlets or to what was written in seclusion 
by those who had escaped the " furie of Protestantism." 
Even Milton, the great Puritan poet, was only a " Puri- 
tan by the accident of his times "; he. must not be nar- 
rowly confined, in literature, to the limits of a narrow 
age. 

In fact, to understand Milton's position it must be 
clearly kept in mind that Puritanism was not a sect. His 
eagerness to serve the cause of civil liberty forced him 
to take sides with the Presbyterians : "he fought their 
perilous battle." says Macaulay, "but he turned away 
with disdain from their insolent triumph." Neither the 
temporary success of his side nor the military despotism 
that Cromwell was forced to set up squared with Milton's 
ideas of freedom. His cause failed even in its success : 
but it failed doubly, to his mind, when in 1060 a Stuart 
was restored to the throne. In his poetry, moreover. 
Milton wrote, like an Elizabethan. " not for an age. but 
for all tune." 




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The Seventeenth Century 177 

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674). 

Life. Milton's whole life centers in two things : what 
he himself called " a vehement love of the beautiful " 
and a no less vehement love of liberty. From early youth 
he looked upon himself as a " dedicated spirit," 

Born to promote all truth. 
All righteous things. 

During the first period of his literary activity, from 1629 
to 1639, he gave himself up to poetry, to the service of 
the beautiful; during the second period, from 1639 to 
1660, he left the service of beauty for that of liberty; 
and during the third, 1660 to 1674, he returned to poetry. 
The broad sweep of his interests looks backward to the 
Elizabethan poets and forward to the French Revolution. 

John Milton was born on December 8, 1608, in a house 
in Bread Street, London. His father, of the same name, 
was a well-to-do scrivener 1 and, in his leisure hours, a 
skilful musician. The boy received a good training, for 
besides his education at St. Paul's School, he had private 
lessons. From the first, he says, he was " serious to 
learn and know " ; " from the twelfth year of my life," he 
tells us in his Defensio Secunda, k ' I scarcely ever went 
from my lessons to bed before midnight. " In 1625 he 
entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he remained 
for seven years. While at the university Milton was 
called the " Lady of Christ's,'' not merely on account of 
his youthful beauty, but also on account of the purity of 
his character. " Only this my mind gave me," he later 
wrote of his youth, " that every free and gentle spirit, 

1 A scrivener was employed to draw up deeds, wills, and contracts. 



178 A History of English Literature 

without that oath, ought to be born a knight, nor needed 
to expect the gilt spur or the laying of a sword upon his 
shoulder to stir him up both by his counsel and his arms, 
to secure and protect the weakness of any attempted 
chastity." 

While he was still at the university, Milton began to 
write poetry. Most of his first efforts were in Latin, 
but among his early attempts in English verse the Ode 
on the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629) showed him 
a poet of great promise. Soon aftet* followed the famous 
sonnet On Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three 
and his Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet W. 
Shakespeare, 

In 1632 Milton's father retired, with a competence, 
to live at Horton, about twenty miles west of London; 
and there his son lived with him for five years, studying 
and writing the best of his so-called " Minor Poems " : 
& Allegro and II Penseroso (1632); Arcades (1633); 
Comns (1634); and Lycidas (1637). These poems, 
written while Ben Jonson was still alive, are full of the 
best Elizabethan inheritances; for the most part, they 
reveal a studious author, a lover of seclusion, a man ded- 
icated singly to poetry. Here and there, however, there 
are important signs of a new calling. In Lycidas, for 
example, Milton turns for a moment from his theme to 
condemn outspokenly the greed and folly of the Church, 
while the poem closes with the prophecy : 

To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new. 

The public life soon to follow was indeed different from 
the auiet clays at Horton. 



The Seventeenth Century 179 

These were only forebodings, however, and Milton, 
with no definite call to service, went abroad in 1638, to 
France and Italy. But a year later, when he heard of the 
war between the Scots and Charles I, he gave up a pro- 
jected journey to Greece and returned to England; " for 
I considered it base," he said, " that, while my country- 
men were fighting at home for liberty, I should be travel- 
ing abroad at ease for intellectual culture. " Here was the 
departure, in Milton's mind : to give up poetry and study 
and to work for " righteous things " — to " scorn delights 
and live laborious days." 

On returning to England Milton had at first nothing 
specific to do. We find him starting a small school in 
London and getting married, in 1643, to Mary Powell. 
His wife left him after a month, and he proceeded during 
the next two years to write four treatises on Divorce. 
Later he was reconciled to her, but it is doubtful whether 
they were happy; it is unlikely that she found comfort in 
his austere Puritan doctrine of marriage: "He for 
God only, she for God in him/ 5 She bore him three 
daughters and died in 1653. He married again in 1656* 
Katharine Woodcock, but she too died after fifteen 
months; and in 1663 he married yet a third time, Eliza- 
beth Minshull. 

More important than the treatises on divorce were 
other pamphlets written by Milton between 1641 and 
1645: five on Church Government; one on Education; 
and the Areopagitica; a Speech for the Liberty of Un- 
licensed Printing, It was by these pamphlets that Milton 
became known. Politically, he had counted for a private 
citizen, a poet of distinction, but not of political value. 



180 A History of English Literature 

Now, however, the power of his pen was recognized, and 
the high position he took in defense of Truth commended 
him to the Puritan leaders. In 1649, soon after he had 
published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in justi- 
fication of the execution of the King, he was appointed 
Secretary for Foreign Tongues. His duties were the 
preparation of addresses, the writing of letters to foreign 
states, and the defense of the Commonwealth. And 
though he filled his position with zeal, — wrote himself 
blind, in fact. — it must be realized that the military des- 
potism which he served was far from his ideal of govern- 
ment : his choice lay, however, as Macaulay says, "not 
between Cromwell and liberty, but between Cromwell and 
the Stuarts." In defense of the Commonwealth he wrote 
several pamphlets, chief among them the Eikonoklastes 1 
( 1649) : The Defensio pro Populo Anglicano (1651 I : 
and the Defensio Secunda (1654). 

Though Milton was stricken with blindness in 1652, 
he retained his position till 1660 and continued to dictate 
letters and pamphlets. Poetry, the chosen calling of his 
.youth, had been largely put aside, but during the years 
of public service he wrote most of his sonnets, and to- 
wards the end began his great work, Paradise Lost. 

For the first six months after the Restoration of 
Charles II, the life of the man who had served Crom- 
well so eagerly was in danger. Milton was arrested 
and fined heavily, but was released. Poor and shut out 
from holding office, he lived quietly in London. It was 

1 That is. " image-breaker." Written in reply to the E k 1 
Basilike ("image of the King"), a book picturing Charles as a 
martyr. 



The Seventeenth Century 



181 



now that he turned to the occupation of his youth — 
poetry. Dictating to his daughters and to a friend, 
Thomas Elhvood, he finished Paradise Lost and published 
it in 1667. He had long thought of making a great 
poem on 'King Arthur — as Spenser had done before him 
and as Tennyson did long after; — but the stern ex- 
perience of his public years had burned deep into his 
soul: he was better fitted to write the story of man's 
sin and fall ; he had had 
almost literal experi- 
ence of the expulsion 
from Paradise. Ell- 
wood, when the great 
epic was finished, asked 
Milton if he had noth- 
ing to say of " Para- 
dise Found." The re- 
sult was Paradise Re- 
gained ( 1671 ) ; but Milton had fought for a losing cause, 
and sang with less power of man's redemption than of his 
fall. More powerful is his last great poem, Samson 
Agonist es (1671), in dramatic form. His genius was 
well suited to the story of Samson's pride and weak- 
ness, and to the chastening moral at the end. This 
moral, indeed, expresses the conclusion of Milton's own 
life. He had fought for a good cause and had failed, but 
he turned to die with " true experience from this great 
event " — in " calm of mind, all passion spent." Among 
the many prose works which he wrote during his last 
years, none is more important than a Latin treatise, De 
Doctrina Christiana, revealing his simple faith in the In- 




MILTOX S COTTAGE, CHALFOXT ST. GILES 



182 A History of English Literature 

ner Spirit. He died November 8, 1674, "with so little 
pain that the time of his expiring was not perceived by 
those in the room." 

At once too visionary and too broad-minded to be suc- 
cessful in a practical way, Milton stood out from the petty 
quarrels of sects and the petty literature of hired pam- 
phleteers and bigoted poets. Alone in a whole century, 
he showed that a Puritan might be a great artist ; and he 
came nearer than any other English poet to combin- 
ing the two great ideals of his life — Beauty and 

Truth. 

1 

Works. If Spenser is " the poet's poet " and Brown- 
ing "the scholar's poet," Milton may be termed "'the 

prophet's poet." For though the felicity of his verse 
appeals strongly to poets and though his writings require 
scholarly study, he is especially an " aider to those who 
would live in the spirit " : a sort of preparation, an initia- 
tion, is necessary if we are to feel the power of his 
" high seriousness." Milton himself liked to refer, in 
his poetry, to the celestial harmony, the music of the 
spheres, which "no gross ear can hear": and Charles 
Lamb said of him: "Milton almost requires a solemn 
service of music to be played before you enter upon him. 
But he brings his music, to which, who listens, had need 
bring docile thoughts and purged ears." 

The Minor Poems. Among Milton's so-called 
" Minor Poems " the best are U Allegro, II Pcnseroso, 
Comus, and Lycidas. The first two of these need little 
explanation. L' Allegro, the happy man, enjoys such 
country pleasures as we should imagine familiar to Mil- 
ton in his life at Horton — a walk in the early morning, 



The Seventeenth Century 183 

Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn 
Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn, 

seeing the plowman, milkmaid, and mower at their work, 
glimpsing " towers and battlements " above the " tufted 
trees/' joining in country dance at an " upland hamlet," 
with tales afterwards over " the spicy nut brown ale," 
or perhaps an evening in town at the " well-trod stage," 

If Jonson's learned sock be on, 

Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 

Warble his native wood-notes wild. 

II Penseroso, the thoughtful man, seeks rather the mid- 
night landscapes, or, if it be day, some " close covert," 
hidden from day's garish eye; but he prefers most of all 
to walk the " studious cloisters " and hear the " pealing 
organ," or to study in " some high lonely tower," read- 
ing Plato, and Greek Tragedy, and " the story of Cam- 
buscan bold." But it is not chiefly the occupations of the 
two men that interest us ; it is rather the pleasant verses, 
with here and there, especially in // Penseroso, some- 
thing of the majesty of Milton's later poetry. 

Comus, a masque, was presented at Ludlow Castle in 
honor of the Earl of Bridgew 7 ater, lately appointed Lord 
President of Wales. The masque, developed by Jonson, 
was an elaborate court play. Originally a masked dance, 
it took on literary elements till in Jonson's time the 
spoken parts became an important feature. Amdng its 
many contrasts to the professional play should be noted 
that it was acted by private persons, usually members of 
the family in whose honor it was given; that it was 
marked by music and dancing ; that both scenery and cos- 



184 A History of English Literature 



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LUDLOW CASTLE. THE HALL IN WHICH COMUS WAS PRESENTED 

tume were elaborate : that it was usually thrown into a 
pastoral setting: and that, after Jonson, it regularly had 
a moral. Com us fulfils all these conditions. Its impor- 
tance to us, however, lies in the excellence of the verse, 
which has long survived the music of Henry Lawes and 
the fame of the Earl of Bridgewater. and in the Mil- 
tonic theme — the power of purity. In Com us, too, there 
are here and there signs of that " loftier strain " Milton 
was destined later to sing. 

Lye id as was written in memory of his friend Edward 
King, drowned in crossing the Irish seas. With absolute 
mastery over his verse, Milton rimes at random, rather 
than according to a regular scheme, with perfect result. 



The Seventeenth Century 185 

This lament is thrown into pastoral form, as is Comxts, 
but the earnestness and enthusiasm of the poet con- 
stantly rise above the pretty, pastoral conventions, es- 
pecially when he speaks of Lycidas in heaven: 

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 

For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 

Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor ; 

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, 

And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky : 

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 

Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves, 

Where, other groves and other streams along, 

With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 

And hears the unexpressive x nuptial song, 

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 

Prose. Lycidas was the last great poem that Milton 
wrote till he turned, in old age, to his greatest work, 
Paradise Lost. For the next twenty years or so his chief 
labors were in the controversial field, either in support of 
the Commonwealth or in exposition of his ideas of Lib- 
erty and Truth. Of all his pamphlets the Areopagitica, 
an argument for the freedom of the press, contains his 
best prose. The whole argument rests on the belief that 
Truth can take care of itself, a belief eloquently set 
forth. 

And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to 
play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously 
by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let 

1 Inexpressible. 



186 A History of English Literature 

her and Falsehood grapple; Who ever knew Truth put to the 
worse in a free and open encounter? 

Again : 

He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and 
seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet 
prefer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Chris- 
tian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexer- 
cised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adver- 
sary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is 
to be run for not without dust and heat. 

What is often considered the finest passage in all Mil- 
ton's prose occurs in this book: 

Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation 
rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking 
her invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle muing 
her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full 
mid-day beam, purging and unsealing her long abused sight at 
the fountain itself of heavenly radiance, while the whole noise 
of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the 
twilight, flutter* about, amazed at what she means, and in their 
envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms. 

Sonnets. The sonnets written during this period of 
prose give ample evidence that Milton had put poetry 
aside only because his time was occupied with what 
seemed weightier matters; there was no abatement of 
genius. He warns Cromwell, " our chief of men," that 

Peace hath her victories 
No less renown'd than war ; 

he bursts out in indignation at the slaughter of Protes- 
tants in Piedmont: 



The Seventeenth Century 187 

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; 

or, reflecting on his blindness, he says : 

God doth not need 
Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best : his state 
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; 
Thev also serve who onlv stand and wait. 




MILTON DICTATING TO HIS DAUGHTERS 
From the painting by M. Munkacsy, in the New York Public Library 

Paradise Lost. Of Milton's longer poems Paradise 
Lost is incontestably the best. It is not only the greatest 
of his works, but as an epic it is unapproached in the 
English language: it stands with the Iliad, the JEncid, 

Its excellence lies in the mag- 



and the Divine Comedy. 



iSS A History or English Literature 



lustrated; and to be fully understc : b they must be felt 

by re-::::r; :be y:en; rib. :be ; 5:: r55 :■: :be :b:unb: ar.i 
:be sur^e :: :be lines run in :be benb, :ib -.ve re?bbze :be 
I'.'... *r.'tr. i'i 1 rcswvrtn 5 unes in jii.nr. — 

br.;-- 5 : ■:.'. •-•}_-- like s. s:-r -::d zkvel: -c-r: 

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea. 

Froin the first lines, when Milton sets forth his purpose 
— to sing €€ of man's first disobedience," to w 

asser: Zrern-' ?r:viien:e 

And ;us:.:ry :l:e " u;"5 ::' b: : :: men — 

the reader moves in the vast worlds of heaven and hell, 
among mighty Titanic forms ; and as the verse proceeds in 
its rolling periods he feels increasingly the gigantic scale 
of the whole conception. The figure of Satan, par- 
ticularly, is tremendously drawn. Mo small and crafty 
devil this, but fallen deity, with 

::v:-re never :: surm:: :r y:e A : 
And what is else not to be overcome; 



I5v ancient larsus neid, or tnat sea-oeast 



The Seventeenth Century 189 

Leviathan, which God of all his works 
Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream. 1 

With spear, to which the tallest pine " were but a wand," 
he had dared to oppose God's power 

In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
And shook his throne. 

Against such a gigantic figure man would have no chance 
were it not for the still more powerful figure of God. 
At the beginning of the poem we are told that after Sa- 
tan's war in Heaven, 

Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 

Yet God, for man's good, allowed Satan the temporary 
victory ; at the end of the poem we find the flaming sword 
of God's angel driving Adam and Eve out of Paradise. 
Looking back, they beheld the gate 

With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms ; 

and so, turning sadly, 

Hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, 
Through Eden took their solitary way. 

The first book, in which Milton describes Satan and 

1 The Atlantic was supposed by the ancients to flow in a circle 
about the earth; and Milton here, as elsewhere, follows the classical 
traditions. 



190 A History of English Literature 

his palace, Pandemonium, is the best ; Satan is the great 
figure of the poem. Other books are tedious in places; 
it has been pointed out that Eve is little more than an 
English housewife, solicitous about the food of visiting 
angels. Still, throughout the twelve books the large 
scale of the first is, in the main, sustained; and mag- 
nificent passages abound, especially in the second book 
and at the end of the whole poem. Again and again 
Milton achieves a tremendous effect by the skilful as- 
sembling of proper names — words that, besides their 
ringing sound, call to the imagination mighty deeds of 
old. Such a passage is the description of Satan's rebel 
host: 

For never, since created man, 
Met such embodied force, as named with these, 
Could merit more than that small infantry 
Warred on by cranes — though all the giant brood 
Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined 
That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 
Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 
In fable or romance of Uther's son, 
Begirt with British and Armoric knights; 
And all who since, baptized or infidel, 
Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 
Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond, 
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 
By Fontarabbia. 

If these names mean what they should to us, we hear, 
as we read the lines, " the drums and tramplings " of all 
time. 

Of not less importance than the language, in produc- 



The Seventeenth Century 191 

ing this martial effect, is the movement of the verse. 
Xo where can the secret of good blank verse be so well 
perceived as in Milton. It will be seen, if the above 
passage is carefully read, that the w<hole makes a sort of 
stanza, no line of which can be omitted without destroy- 
ing the beauty of the passage. It is these periods — 
what may be called variable stanzas — that are the chief 
glory of Miltonic blank verse. As other lines are read, 
it will be observed how each period, or group, moves like 
a live thing, now rapidly, now slowly, sometimes with 
apparent confusion, never monotonously, but coming 
round at the end of each period to the far-seen conclu- 
sion, a regular iambic line. Good blank verse, we come 
to realize as we read Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Ten- 
nyson, is more than iambic pentameter, and more than a 
collection of individual lines. Capable of infinite varia- 
tions, it is at once the most difficult and, when success- 
fullv written, the most wonderful of English meters. 



i &* 



JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688). 

Milton was not only a Puritan, but carried with him 
the literary tradition of the Elizabethan Age. Bunyan, 
in contrast, was entirely a product of the Puritan Age. 
A poor tinker in a country village, he knew no literature 
but his Bible; and when he was " converted " and began 
to write, he spoke in the simple language that he knew. 
The intensity of his spiritual struggle and the simple 
vigor of his great book, Pilgrim's Progress, are the two 
important points for us to notice. To understand Bun- 
yan and his book, we must realize the grip w T hich religion 
had on earnest men in the seventeenth century; we must 



192 A History of English Literature 

recall the fact that the one concern of this life was the 
salvation of the individual soul, that men went into bat- 
tle singing hymns, that Cromwell himself wept " hys- 
terical tears "; then we shall begin to understand the tor- 
ment and the ecstasy of the Puritan in the throes of con- 
version. 

Life. John Bunyan, born in the hamlet of Elstow, 
near Bedford, was the son of a tinker. Not much is 
known of his youth except that he followed his father's 
trade and was, by his own account, rather a leader in the 
village games. Harmless as these games — tipcat and 
dancing — seem to us, they were condemned by the se- 
vere Puritans, especially as Sunday pastimes. About 
the time of Bunyan's marriage, 1648, he began to have 
searchings of heart; a voice from heaven asked him 
whether " he would leave his sins and go to heaven, or 
keep his sins and go to hell." For upwards of seven 
years, he tells us, he went through terrible visions, yearn- 
ings, and depressions. Sometimes he felt the devil pull- 
ing at his back as he tried to pray; he seemed to himself 
" more loathsome than a toad," yet he felt love to Christ 
" hot as fire." Gradually, however, he fought his way 
through to spiritual calm. He says that he managed to 
give up swearing, though it is hard to believe that he 
ever offended greatly; 1 reluctantly but successfully he 
renounced what he considered worldly pleasures, among 
them dancing and bell-ringing; in 1653 he was publicly 

1 It should be realized that swearing was not generally condemned 
till Puritan times, and that what Bunyan gave up was using the 
ordinary language of a Royalist — perhaps no more blasphemous* 
than " Mon Dieu " or " Lieber Gott " in modern French and Germaji. 









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JOHX BUNYAN 

A reduced facsimile of a drawing (made with pencil upon vellum) by Robert 
Whi:e, now in the British Museum. It was designed as copy for the _ en- 
graving that forms the frontispiece to the third edition of " The Pilgrim's 
Progress," published in 1679, and is probably the earliest portrait of Bunyan 



The Seventeenth Century 



195 



baptized in the River Ouse, and two years later he 
moved to Bedford and was made a deacon. Almost im- 
mediately he became famous as a preacher; he says he 
felt "as if an angel of God had stood at my back." 
Later, when he preached in London and Charles II won- 
dered how the learned Dr. Owen could " sit and listen 
to an illiterate tinker, " 
Owen answered, " I 
would gladly give up all 
my learning if I could 
preach like that tinker.'' 
At the Restoration, in 
1660, Bunyan came un- 
der the law against non- 
conformist preachers, 
was arrested, and, since 
he would not promise to 
stop preaching, was im- 
prisoned for twelve 
years. The Declara- the market cross, elstow, where 
tion of Indulgence STAKES ' W0N 0R L0ST AT " Tip - CAT «" 

fe WERE PAID 

(1672) made him a 

free man, but the Test Act (1673) brought him to jail 
again. After six months, however, the intervention of 
Owen and Bishop Barlow secured his release. From then 
till his death he labored unceasingly in good works and 
eloquent preaching to his simple congregation in Bedford. 
Works. Bunyan began writing in 1656 and from 
then till his death poured out a great quantity of con- 
troversial pamphlets, sermons, and religious allegories. 
Of these the two most important are : Grace Abounding 




196 A History of English Literature 

«'i666V which tells the story of his conversion: and 
Tee Pilgrinvs Prioress, Pert tee First (167S). The 
latter of these has not only been familiar for over r.vo 
centuries to all sorts of English readers, but it has been 
translated into over seventy-hive languages and dialects 
and has taken its place annong the half-coze:: greatest 
bocks in the English language. This preeminence is 
due largely to the reality and sincerity c f the story. Eun- 
yan did not have to invent: the terrible visions of his 
conversion mere like real experiences to him: he him- 
self had borne the burden of Christian, had encountere 1 
the beast Arollyom had been deserted in the Slough of 
Despond, had met in Vanity Fair " vice with all her 
baits and seeming pleasures " and yet had been able, like 
Milton's " true warfaring Christian." to " abstain and 
distinguish and prefer that which is truly better." had 
faced in Sir John Keeling just such a judge as Lord 
Hategood, and had won his way t: spiritual rest. Like 
the substance of the book, moreover, the style is won- 
derfully vivid and sincere — the plain. Saxon speech of 
the men he knew, ith the added dignity and beauty of 
the English he had learned from his King James Bible. 
It is this simple, powerful English of Bunyan's which 
still he Ids readers when the message of the beck has 
Lest something of the terrible import that it bore to the 
strue^rlincr Puritan. 

OTHER WRITERS OF THE PURITAN AGE. 

Among the other writers who nourished in this age 

f prose should be noted terecoy tavlor 1613-1667 i 

and isaac walI'jx ' 15 93-1 6^ 3 > Tapl r was an An- 



The Seventeenth Century 



197 



glican divine, one of a large class who, while adhering to 
the doctrines of the Church of England, were much in- 
fluenced by the great movement for piety and purity 
going on about them. His greatest works are Holy 
Living (1650) and Holy Dying (1651), two books often 
printed as one, written in rich, poetic prose. Taylor, 
whom Emerson called " the 
Shakespeare of divines," 
wrote prose, one feels, only 
because of the accident of 
his times. The following 
quotation shows well his 
' main theme — preparation 
for death and life in the 
next world — and gives 
some idea of his imagina- 
tive manner of expression 
— an imagination which in 
other times must have 
found vent in poetry: 
" We taste the grave and 




JEREMY TAYLOR 



funerals, first in those 
and next in them that 



the solemnities of our own 
parts that ministered to vice, 
served for ornament; and in a short time even they that 
served for necessity become useless, and entangled like 
the wheels of a broken clock. Every day's necessity 
calls for a reparation of that portion which death fed 
on all night, when we lay in his lap and slept in his outer 
chambers." 

Walton represents another class, those who, wisely for 
them, shunned London and the political unrest. Walton 



198 A History of English Literature 

had always been fond of fishing, and when civil war broke 
out in 1642 he closed his shop in London and betook 

himself to quiet country 
streams. The Coin- 
pleat Angler (1653) 
was the result, a book 
that breathes the gentle- 
ness and quiet philos- 
ophy of the contempla- 
tive fisherman. Less 
well known are his 
Lives, chiefly of Eng- 
lish divines, among 
them George Herbert, 
but these writings, like 
The Compleat Angler, 
reveal the sweet content 

ISAAC WALTON £ 1 1 J ^1 

ot a man who loved the 
past and his own out-of-doors — a quiet note in pleasant 
contrast to the discordant din of sects and schisms. 

THE AGE OF DRYDEN (1660-1700). 

With the Restoration there was a violent reaction 
against Puritanism. In their zeal the Puritans had car- 
ried virtue to excess; it had too often been pretense. In 
the reaction against this sham virtue many men of Dry- 
den's time pretended a depravity which they did not 
possess. It must be conceded, however, that, just as the 
Puritans often lived up to their professions of virtue, 
the gallants of the Restoration often lived down to their 
professions of vice. The age, generally speaking, was 




The Seventeenth Century 199 

one of low standards intellectually and morally. The 
example was set by a profligate and careless king, and 
literature, especially the restored drama, sank to a de- 
pravity not elsewhere seen in English history. It is sig- 
nificant that Dryden, who knew the better, nearly always 
chose the worse : he wrote down to the popular taste and 
so helped to lower it, instead of chastening it gradually 
to a higher level. And what is true of Dryden is sub- 
stantially true of the age. 

The influence of France was very marked during the 
Age of Dryden. The king, in the first place, soon lost 
the prestige that Cromwell had won for England; from 
France he took, as Macaulay puts it, " her degrading in- 
sults and her more degrading gold." In addition, he 
took his manners from the polished court of Louis XIV. 
Writers, similarly, took their literary manners from the 
French ; and literature in this age began to reflect French 
care in regard to polish and form. Thus began the so- 
called classic movement, which dominated English litera- 
ture for a century. Classicism, however, was as un- 
natural to the English as it was natural to the French, 
with the result that in England there was a great deal 
of affectation and imitation. 

The French influence, however, had one saving grace : 
it helped to produce English prose style. The sonorous 
Latinate prose of the English Prayer Book was being 
written by such men as Milton and Jeremy Taylor while 
Dryden was a young man; and the simple straightfor- 
ward English of the King James Bible was the natural 
expression of Puritan writers like Bunyan. In Dry- 
den's prose is preserved the best of these two great in- 



200 A History of English Literature 

heritances, and there is added a compactness and arrange- 
ment — in short, a sense of form — which made English 
prose into a new thing. This is the great contribution 
of Dryden's Age. 

It must not be imagined, of course, that Puritanism 
was dead. Its influence among English-speaking people 
is not dead yet; and in the Restoration period it was 
very active indeed. We have only to recall that Bun- 
van's Pilgrim' s Progress was written during this time. 
In other fields, too, there were many minor writers of 
excellence : Evelyn and Pepys, the diarists ; Locke and 
Hobbes, the philosophers; and Butler, the author of 
Hudibras, the great satire on Puritanism. Only one fig- 
ure, however, — that of Dryden — stands out at all em- 
inently. If Dryden served only as an introduction to 
the eighteenth century, a sort of bridge between Milton 
and Pope, it would be important to study him ; but he 
did far more : he made English prose. 

JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700). 

Life. Dryden was born in August, 1631, at Aid- 
winkle All Saints, a little village in Northamptonshire. 
He came of a good family and received a good education 
at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge. Dryden developed slowly, however: he did not 
enter the university till he was nineteen ; he did not come 
into literary prominence till he was well past thirty : and 
his greatest work was written after he was fifty. 

Soon after the Restoration, Dryden began to write 
plays, and though he believed in the blank verse style 
of Shakespeare, he catered to the popular taste for the 









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JOHN DRYDEN 
From a painting by Sir G. Kneller 



The Seventeenth Century 203 

heroic couplet. Admiring Milton, he had the effrontery 
to base an opera, the State of Innocence (1669) on Para- 
dise Lost. He is said to have asked Milton for permis- 
sion to turn the verse into rime; whereat Milton re- 
plied, " Ay, tag my verses if you will." 1 Far worse, he 
followed the popular demand for immorality. Few of 
his plays 2 are worthy of notice. While he was writing 
worthless plays, however, he was turning out prose pref- 
aces that were destined to affect English style perma- 
nently. His purpose, to make his writing clear and com- 
pact, is well illustrated in his Essay of Dramatic Poesx 

(1667). 

Dryden achieved great popularity with his rimed 
couplets and in 1670 was made Poet Laureate. His real 
power as a poet lay, not in drama, but in satire. In 
1681 he published his Absalom and Achitophel, in which 
he satirized Shaftesbury for championing the claims of 
the Duke of Monmouth as heir to the throne. The poem 
found both popular and royal favor; Dryden was at the 
top of his fame. Another satire was MacFlecknoe 
(1682), directed against a poet named Shadwell and said 
to have been the model for Pope's Dunciad. Shadwell 
and the poem have been forgotten, but the lines, 

The rest to some faint meaning make pretense, 
But Shadwell never deviates into sense, 

are immortal. 

1 It should be remembered that Milton in his preface to Paradise 
Lost said that rime was "no necessary adjunct or true ornamen* 
of poem or good verse, — but the invention of a barbarous age, to 
set off wretched matter and lame meter." 

2 All for Love, Don Sebastian, and The Conquest of Granada are 
perhaps the best. 



204 A History of English Literature 

In his old age Dryden continued to write actively. 
The Hind and the Panther (1687), m which he at- 
tempted to justify his change to the Romanist faith, shut 

him out from favor just at a time when England was 
turning resolutely Protestant. Dryden, however, in spite 




Copyright photo. Emery Walker. London. E. C. 

DRYDEX'S BIRTHPLACE. ALDWINKLE ALL SAINTS 

of a life of catering to popular taste,, stood his ground 
sturdily and remained a Romanist. Among his last 
important works are a translation of Virgil (1697) and 
his second Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, usually called 
Alexanders Feast (1697). 

In the heyday of his fame Dryden was something of a 
literary dictator, but he took on more of this character 
in his old age. Then, in spite of adversity, political 
and religious, he was looked up to by the younger 
writers. The French fashion in literature was no longer 
a new thing: and Dryden, instead of an innovator, was 



The Seventeenth Century 205 

counted the acknowledged champion of the established 
order. Our last picture of him is at Will's Coffee- 
House, by the fire in winter, at the window in summer, 
making or marring by his judgments the fame of youth- 
ful authors. Here Swift was told that he would never 
be a poet, and here Pope, a boy of twelve, saw the great 
man whose skill in satiric verse he was to equal, if not 
surpass. 

Works. In discussing Dryden's writings, we must 
notice especially two points : his development of the 
heroic couplet and his prose style. The heroic couplet 
should be distinguished from heroic x verse in couplets. 
The latter may be found in poets as diverse as Chaucer, 
Shakespeare, and Keats. The heroic couplet, which be- 
came popular in Dryden's hands, was a much more formal 
thing: the sense is rarely " run on'' outside of the 
couplet; the second verse of each couplet usually am- 
plifies or contrasts with the first ; and each line is usually 
divided into 'two halves, in sense, as well as in meter. 
This precise form was dull enough in most hands, but in 
those of Dry den and Pope it was wonderfully adapted 
to their trenchant phrases. The following lines from 
MacFlecknoe are an excellent example of Dryden's use 
of the heroic couplet : 

All human things are subject to decay, 

And when Fate summons, Monarchs must obey. 

Not adapted to dramatic, epic, or lyric verse, the 
" closed " couplet has been rarely used to express great 
emotions; but it was the best possible vehicle for the 

1 That is, iambic pentameter. See pp. 284* 428. 



206 A History of English Literature 

satire of Dryden and Pope — the form of verse, in Dry- 
den's own words, 

Fittest for discourse, and nearest prose. 

For this Age of Dryden, like the Age of Pope, was one 
of prose. 

To give some idea of Dryden' s prose style and how it 
differs from all that precedes it is difficult without ex- 
tensive quotation. One should read several pages of 
Bacon or Milton and then turn directly to Dryden. The 
difference is at once obvious. The structure of Mil- 
ton's prose is more Latin than English and might have 
been made any time during the sixteen centuries before 
Milton. Dryden, in contrast, seems almost as modern 
as Thackeray, and quite as modern as Burke. A few 
sentences from the Essay of Dramatic Poesy may give 
at least a hint of what is meant : 

To begin then with Shakespeare. He was the man who of 
all modern and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most 
comprehensive soul. All the images of nature were still pres- 
ent to him, and he drew them not laboriously but luckily : 1 
when he describes anything you more than see it. you feel it 
too. 

It does insufficient justice to Dryden, however, to 
speak only of his style. He was the ablest critic of his 
time, a man whose pithy comments on literature rank 
beside Bacon's vivid sentences on life. So, of Jon son 
he savs : " One cannot say he wanted wit, but rather 
that he was frugal of it;" — again: "'He invades au- 

1 Happily. 



The Seventeenth Century 207 

thors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other 
poets, is only victory in him;" — and of Jeremy Col- 
lier : * " He is too much given to horseplay in his rail- 
lery, and comes to battle like a dictator from the plough." 

1 The author of an attack on the stage. 



208 A History of English Literature 



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The Seventeenth Century 



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210 A History of English Literature 



BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Bex Jonson. For Ben Jonson. as for his 

contemporary dramatists. Dekker. Webster, Beaumont. 
Fletcher, etc.. the most representative plays are to be found 
in The Mermaid Series (Scribner). Good selections from the 
lyrics of these writers and of other seventeenth century au- 
thors are given in Schelling's Seventeenth Century Lyrics 
(Ginn). while sufficient for a brief acquaintance will be found 
in Manly' s English Poetry (Ginn) and Century Readings 
(Century). 

Milton. The authoritative life of Milton is by Masson. 
in 6 vols. (Macmillan). Good one volume accounts are given 
by Pattison (English Men of Letters Series) and by Garnett 
(Great Writers Series). Masson's edition of Milton's Poetical 
Works, 3 vols. (Macmillan). is the standard, but the Globe 
Edition { Macmillan ) is satisfactory for general reading. In 
addition there are many cheap school editions, especially of 
the Minor Poems and Paradise Lost. Milton's prose works 
have been edited by J. A. St. John. ; vols. (Macmillan) : the 
Areopagitica has been well edited by J. \Y. Hales (Claren- 
don Press ). 

Burton's Ax atomy of Melancholy is published in 3 vols., 
by Bohn. Walton's Lives and The Compleat Angler, as 
well as Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying, are 
conveniently published in the Temple Classics (DentL The 
diaries of Pepys and Evelyn are both published on India paper 
by George Xewnes. 

Bunyan. The best lives are by Froude ( English Men of 
Letters Series) and by Yenables ( Great Writers Series). Of 
Bunyan's chief works. The Pilgrim's Progress and Grace 
Abounding are published by the Clarendon Press. The Pil- 
grim's Progress, of course, may be had in numerous school 
editions. 



The Seventeenth Century 211 

Dryden. The works, with life by Walter Scott, revised and 
edited by Saintsbury, 18 vols. (Putnam), is the best edition. 
A good life in one volume is Saintsbury's (English Men of 
Letters Series). The Globe one-volume edition (Macmillan) 
of the Poetical Works is good, while the best plays are given 
in the Mermaid Series (Scribner). An Essay of Dramatic 
Poesy is given in Century Readings (Century) ; further selec- 
tions from Dryden's prose are published in Cassell's National 
Library. 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

Jonson's The Alchemist, Dekker's Old Fortunatus, Web- 
ster's Duchess of Malfi, and Beaumont and Fletcher's The 
Knight of the Burning Pestle form a good beginning for 
early 17th century drama. Of Milton, one should read at least 
L'Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, a few Son- 
nets, Paradise Lost, Book I, and selections from the Areo- 
pagitica. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress should be read entire. 
Of Dryden, the beginner should read first Alexander's 
Feast, the Song for St. Cecilia's Day, Absalom and Achi- 
tophel, and An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Selections from 
the poets (such as are given in Manly 's English Poetry or in 
Century Readings) — especially Herbert, Herrick, and Love- 
lace, — and selections from Walton's Compleat Angler, Tay- 
lor's Holy Living and Holy Dying, and Pepys' Diary com- 
plete a fairly representative list. 

HISTORY AND CRITICISM. The first half of the cen- 
tury is well covered by Gardiner's The First Two Stuarts 
and the Puritan Revolution (Epoch Series) ; and Masson's 
Life of Milton, 6 vols. (Macmillan), is a mine of historical infor- 
mation. The standard history of the second half of the century 
is Macaulay's, though it has a strong Whig bias. Other refer- 
ences : Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 4 vols., ed. by Car- 
lyle (Scribner) ; Wendell, The Temper of the Seventeenth 
Century in English Literature (Scribner). See also special 
chapters in books recommended on p. 433. 



212 A History of English Literature 

POETRY AND FICTION. A great many novels have been 
based on seventeenth century history. Among the best are : 
Scott's The Fortunes of Nigel, The Legend of Montrose, 
Woodstock, Peveril of the Peak, Old Mortality, The Pirate, 
and The Bride of Lammermoor; Shorthouse's John Inglcsant; 
Blackmore's Lorna Doone ; and Doyle's Micaii Clarke. Xoyes's 
Tales of the Mermaid Tavern give an interesting picture in 
verse of Ben Jonson and his friends. Browning's play, Straf- 
ford, the same author's Cavalier Tunes, Aytoun's Lays of the 
Scottish Cavaliers, and Scott's Rokeby are poems that give a 
good idea of the Stuart century. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

The French influence toward formality and correct- 
ness, which Dryden had so ably forwarded in the seven- 
teenth century, continued through almost the entire 
eighteenth century. At the same time colonization was 
rapid, especially in America and India ; under able leaders 
England was generally victorious ; and under able states- 
men the country was generally prosperous. There was 
a great advance- in commercial activity, and the toiling 
middle class, with more time and money, began to count 
in the social and literary life. This rapid commercial 
development, coupled with the French influence, led men 
away from the country to the city. It is a noteworthy 
fact that all the authors of importance during the first 
seventy-five years of the century spent most of their 
time in London. When they lived in the country, they 
frequently made it over into trim gardens, arranged 
with mathematical precision. Woods became groves, 
decorated with statuary, and were peopled, in the poetry, 
with the fauns and nymphs of classical tradition. 

In such an age naturalness and emotion were at a dis- 
count. Reserve, restraint, precision, were the great so- 
cial and literary virtues. It must not be imagined that 
London life really attained the French elegance which 

213 



214 A History of English Literature 

it strove to reproduce. London was a dirty, poorly- 
lighted city; its inhabitants, a Frenchman would have 
said, were a very rough set. Nevertheless there was, 
superficially at least, an elegance which has made the days 
of Queen Anne famous. The gold-headed cane, the 
sedan-chair, the coffee-house, the periwig, — all the out- 
ward signs were there ; and these, in spite of much coarse- 
ness, were the signs of an inward, if not always spiritual, 
grace. The gentlemen and ladies of the eighteenth cen- 
tury were as urbane as English men and women could 
conceivably be. 

If such life turned men's minds to trivialities — as 
the poetry of the age abundantly shows — it at least 
gives us a pleasant intimacy with the writers of the day. 
Milton meditating " the ways of God to men " and Shel- 
ley dreaming of the "clear keen joyance " of the lark 
are more spirits than men; we almost forget that they 
went about like ordinary persons, eating, sleeping, and 
passing odd moments in trivial conversation. But the 
great men of the eighteenth century — Swift, Addison, 
Pope, Johnson, and their friends — never lose their 
human likeness ; we somehow get to know them intimately 
as men, incidentally as authors, just as we might know 
such figures to-day. Pope said, 

The proper study of mankind is man, 

and thus in a single line voiced the interest of the age 
— often trivial, but always human, always intensely real. 
The literature of such a time was naturally prosaic. 
Pope is the only great figure in poetry. The prose, how- 
ever, ranks among the best in our language. Following 



The Eighteenth Century 215 

the lead of Dryden, Swift and Addison exalted prose to a 
rank equal with poetry; and in the latter half of the 
century, the English novel came into being. 

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THE GARDENS AT VERSAILLES 



strength, as his literature abundantly shows, is natural- 
ness; and sooner or later he breaks through bonds that 
attempt to make him something other than what he es- 
sentially is. The result in the eighteenth century was 
that the undercurrent of naturalness, of desire for free- 
dom in thought and action — and consequently in litera- 
ture — eventually broke out. At the end of the century, 
instead of restraint, we find men returning to freedom, 
to the country, to the [Middle Age, to emotion — to any- 
thing that does not deal with the trivialities and 
artificialities of social life. The century may be con- 



216 A History of English Literature 



veniently divided into three periods: The Age of Pope 
(1700-1740); the Age of Dr. Johnson (1 740-1 780); 
and, overlapping a little, The Return to Nature (1770- 
1800). 

THE AGE OF POPE (1700-1740). . 

In the age of Pope the brutality of Dryden's time 
gave way to a superficial decency. Addison showed men 
that it was a contradiction to be elegant in literature and 
inelegant in morals. This period is primarily the day 

of the coffee-house and 
the city wits. Litera- 
ture, moreover, was 
closely associated with 
politics; nearly all the 
great writers made their 
way by political pam 
phlets, by doing with 
their pens what the 
newspaper accomplishes 
to-day. The special 
literary features of the 
time were the perfec- 
tion of the heroic coup- 
let, the beginning of the 
newspaper and maga- 
zine, and the develop- 
ment of prose style. 
On account of its at- 
tempt to imitate the 
" golden age " of Virgil' 




fyntrJ. fcr'Jteftry RjJec-. tWur Jjr. ilvL.ru- ;* fictf? 



SCENE IN A COFFEE HOUSE 
From Boynton's " London in English Lit- 
erature," by permission of The University 
of Chicago Press 



The Eighteenth Century 217 

and Horace, it is sometimes called the " Augustan Age." 
Often, too, it is named after Queen Anne, though it ex- 
tended far beyond the limits of her reign. 

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745). 

Possessed of a great mind forced to deal with small 
things and of a nature instinctively proud and perverse, 
Swift is one of the most tragic figures in English litera- 
ture. Capable of strong love and still stronger hate, he 
passed from bitterness to insanity. " An awful downfall 
and ruin," says Thackeray. 1 " So great a man he seems 
to me, that thinking of him is like thinking of an empire 
falling." 

Life. Jonathan Swift was born of English parents 
in Dublin on November 30, 1667. An uncle gave him 
the chance of a good education (which he called "the 
education of a dog") at Kilkenny School and Trinity 
College, Dublin; but he took little interest in his studies 
and won his degree only by " special grace." In 1689 
he received an appointment as under-secretary to Sir 
William Temple, a distinguished scholar and diplomatist, 
who lived at Moor Park in Surrey. The position, how- 
ever, which involved eating in the kitchen, seemed menial 
to Swift, and in 1694 he quarreled with Temple and left 
him. It was a piece of Swift's character to quarrel be- 
fore leaving; and it was a further piece of his nature 
not to hesitate about asking favors from a person he 
had just insulted. In less than a year we find him re- 

1 Thackeray says some brilliant things about Swift, but his picture 
of the great Dean, in Henry Esmond and still more in The English 
Humourists, makes Swift out more savage than he really was. 



218 A History of English Literature 

questing Temple to recommend him for orders in the 
ministry. Temple willingly gave him the recommenda- 
tion, and in 1695 Swift was ordained and appointed to a 
small parish at Kilroot. In a year, however, he tired 
of it and returned to the service of Temple, where he 
remained till the old courtier's death in 1699. It was 
at this time that he wrote The Battle of the Books ( 1697) 
and A Talc of a Tub ( 1696-8), 1 full of his genius for 
satire. 

For the first ten years of the new century Swift strug- 
gled to gain prominence and, often failing, grew in bit- 
terness. His writings had brought him some fame, and 
he knew most of the great men in London — though he 
usually despised them ; — but it was not till the return 
of the Tories to power in 17 10 that he became a factor 
in politics. During these ten years he held a " living " 
at Laracor, outside of Dublin, but he spent much of his 
time in London. Along with his increasing bitterness 
at this time should be noticed the fact that he was get- 
ting on in years. Insatiably ambitious and often disap- 
pointed, scornful of favors, and past forty when he came 
into power, Swift had become fairly addicted to savage 
satire. 

Swift's character — the strange contrast of his love and 
hate — is well brought out by his attitude towards 
women. He insulted and repulsed two ladies to whom 
he had once made addresses; and he seemed to find a 
sort of brutal glory in bullying and bringing to tears the 
ladies of great houses where he was sometimes a guest ; 2 

1 Both of these books were published in 1704. 

2 When Lady Burlington refused his peremptory demand that 



The Eighteenth Century 219 

vet toward Esther Johnson, the adopted daughter of Sir 
William Temple, the " Stella " of his poetry, he showed 
unchanging affection, and when she died in 1728, the 
light seems to have gone out of his life. This " violent 
friendship,'' as Swift called it, which he protested was 
" much more lasting than violent love," should be re- 
membered while we condemn Swift for his brutal jests. 
We know that he was far ahead of his age in his con- 
ception of woman's part in life; and it is fair to assume 
that he was often actuated by the same kind of cynical 
humor that drove Hamlet to mock Ophelia. The situa- 
tion was so terrible that it became a jest; from love as 
well as from hate he turned to mockery. 

This same jesting with the deepest things of life is 
apparent in Swift's dealings with men — though not quite 
so apparent, for the situation w T as less terrible. Still, as 
the right hand of the Tory leader, Harley, and the 
editor of the Tory Examiner, he appeared the scourge of 
political opponents. He demanded apologies and ad- 
vances from the great and the rich. When told that the 
Duke of Buckingham was not used to making advances, 
he replied that he could not help that, for he " always 
expected advances in proportion to men's quality and 
more from a Duke than any other man." Sw T ift's glory, 
however, was short-lived, for in 1713 the Tories went 
out of power; expecting a Bishopric, he had to be con- 
tented with the Deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin. On 
the death of Anne in 17 14 all hopes of political favor 

she sing, he replied, " Why, madam, I suppose you take me for one 
of your poor English hedge-parsons ; sing when I bid you." . She 
retired in tears. The next time Swift saw her he asked : " Pray, 
madam, are you as proud and ill-natured as when I saw you last ? " 



220 A History of English Literature 



were at an end ; but Swift journeyed several times to Lon- 
don, returning thence each time more bitter than be- 
fore, till finally in 1727 he gave up the quest and remained 
in Ireland — " a wretched, dirty dog-hole and prison," he 
called it; "a place good enough to die in." 

During the first twenty years of the century Swift's 

pen was active in writ- 
ing pamphlets and 
short satires, and in 
editing a Tory paper, 
the Examiner (1710- 
11). He wrote a good 
deal of verse, but bore 
out Dryden's comment, 
" Cousin Swift, you 
will never be a poet." 
In 1724 he made a great 
stit by his M. B. D ra- 
pier Letters, attacking 
a scheme of depreciat- 
joxathax swift ; ng t h e Irish currency. 

The poor people of Ireland, to whom he regularly gave 
a third of his income, treated him as a hero, so much so 
that Sir Robert Walpole, when he threatened to arrest 
Swift, was advised not to do so " unless you have ten 
thousand men behind the warrant.'' Until Gullivers 
Travels (1726), however, nothing so good 1 as the Bat- 
tle of the Books and The Tale of a Tub had come from 
Swift's pen. By Gulliver he acquired not only fame in 
his own day, but for all time. 
But in 1726 Swift was too old and too bitter to enjoy his 




The Eighteenth Century 221 

fame. The last chapters of Gulliver show that he was 
beginning to lose control of his satire, which, for all its 
ferocity, had gained much force from its terrible re- 
straint. Polite Conversation (1738) and Directions to 
Servants- (1738) show some of his old power, but the 
Modest Proposal (i/2g) is characteristic of much of his 
later work. In this Modest Proposal for Preventing the 
Children of Poor People in Ireland from being a Bur- 
den to their Parents or Country, the savage Dean recom- 
mends, in grave satire, that live-sixths of the children be 
fattened and eaten. " I have been assured by a very know- 
ing American/' he says, " that a young healthy child, 
well nursed, is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, 
and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or 
boiled ; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in 
a fricassee or a ragout." Full of such repulsive jesting, 
with Stella gone, and insanity growing upon him, Swift 
spent his last fifteen years in misery. Unlike most of 
the literary men of the day, he did not frequent the 
coffee-houses; and though he was full of admiration for 
Addison and of love for Pope, he was strangely alone 
in an age of congeniality and sociability. His loneliness, 
however, was not wholly a defect, for it sprang in part 
from his uncompromising genuineness and desire to 
speak the " plain truth." This genuineness, as well as 
his generosity to the poor and the power of his intellect 
when he was in middle age, make his last years all the 
more tragic. He died October 19, 1745. Nearly all of 
a considerable fortune he left to found St. Patrick's 
Hospital for the insane. 

Works. The best of Swift's satire appears in The 



222 A History of English Literature 

Battle of the Books and in Gulliver. The first of these, 
after giving a history of the rivalry between ancient and 
modern books in St. James's Library, tells a charming 
little fable, " The Spider and the Bee/' in which the 
spider represents the moderns, full of poison, engendered 
" by feeding upon the insects and vermin of the age," 
while the bee figures for the ancients, " furnishing man- 
kind with the two noblest of things, which are sweet- 
ness and light." Then commences the battle in St. 
James's Library, with the victory to the ancients. Gentle 
but pointed in its satire, the little book is a good ex- 
ample of Swift's earlier manner. Dryden, for instance, 
in his contest with Virgil, is figured riding on a sorrel 
gelding; " but his speed was less than his noise; for his 
horse, old and lean, spent the dregs of his strength in a 
high trot, which, though it made slow advances, yet 
caused a loud clashing of armour, terrible to hear." Fi- 
nally Dryden " soothed up the good ancient; called him 
father, and, by a large deduction of genealogies, made it 
plainly appear that they were nearly related. . . . Then 
they agreed to exchange horses ; 1 but, when it came to the 
trial, Dryden was afraid and utterly unable to mount." 

The story of Gulliver is too well known to need re- 
telling, for even those who miss the satire enjoy the 
amusing experiences of Lemuel Gulliver amidst pygmies 
and giants. Swift, of course, was thinking all the time 
of the pettiness and grossness of mankind; and in the first 
chapters of the book revealed them with sufficient humor 
to soften the sting. In the last part, however, the 
Houyhnhnms, enlightened horses, are pictured as far 

1 Dryden, it will be remembered, translated Virgil. 



The Eighteenth Century 223 

superior to men, who, in the degraded, bestial form of 
Yahoos, are their servants; and here the satire passes 
decent moderation and becomes savage. The clever in- 
vention and the delightful humor of the earlier part have 
nevertheless set Gulliver on the select shelf where Robin- 
son Crusoe and Pilgrim's Progress stand; it is one of 
the few really great books. 

A word as to Swift's prose style. Any one reading 
Gulliver must be struck by the nice choice of words and 
the easy rhythm of the sentences; but what counts for 
even more is the thrift with which Swift uses his lan- 
guage. It is a quality impossible to illustrate by a sen- 
tence, but as one reads and re-reads Swift, it becomes 
apparent that no writer, not even Addison, says so ex- 
actly what he means and says it with so little waste of 
words. 

JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719). 

Addison was the most successful essayist of the early 
eighteenth century. A quiet, retiring man, he neverthe- 
less frequented the coffee-houses, where he learned, like 
his " Spectator/' to know the ways of mankind; and he 
was able, by his kindly satire, to lead men to better ways : 
as Macaulay puts it, he " reconciled wit and virtue/' 
Like most of his great literary contemporaries, he took 
part in public life, and in this field, though Swift's power 
for a short period was greater than his, he rose far higher 
than any writers of his day. 

Life. Joseph Addison was born May 1, 1672, at Mils- 
ton, near Salisbury. His father, Lancelot Addison, who 
was appointed Dean of Lichfield in 1683, was a man °f 
taste and ability. The boy was sent to Charter House 



224 A History of English Literature 




School, in London, 
where he became a 
close friend of Dick 
Steele, with whom he 
was later to be associ- 
ated in literature. From 
Charter House he went 
to Oxford in 1687. His 
career there was a long 
and distinguished one. 
After two years at 
Queen's College,, Latin 
verses won him a schol- 
arship at 



JOSEPH ADDISOX 



Magdalen 
College, from which in 
1693 h e received the de- 



gree of M.A. 



There he remained for the next six years, 
being made a Fellow in 1698. He had written an Ac- 
it of the Greatest English Poets (1693) and was al- 
ready well known for his verses. Lord Halifax per- 
ceived what a valuable addition Addison's pen would be 
to the Whig cause, and so in 1699 procured him a pension 
from the Crown of ±300. Addison thereupon aban- 
doned his idea of taking - rders and traveled abroad 
for four years, to prepare himself for public life. On 
his return the Whigs were out of power, but his poem. 
The Campaigji I 1704), celebrating [Marlborough's vic- 
tory a: Blenheim, brought him great fame, and shortly 
after, in 1706. he was appointed Under Secretary of 
State. With the same easy success he c< ntinued in his 
political career. When the. Whigs came back into full 



The Eighteenth Century 225 

power, in 1708, he was elected to the House of Com- 
mons and appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland. In 
17 10, when the heyday of Swift began, he lost his 
position, but got it back on the accession of George I, 
was elected in 171 5 to a seat on the Board of Trade, and 
in 1 71 7 was appointed Secretary of State. 




MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 



During these years of successful public life Addison's 
pen was active. In 1706 he produced an opera called 
Rosamond; in 1709-11 he wrote for Steele's Taller, and 
in 1711-13 he contributed the largest part of The Spec- 
tator; in 1 71 3 his drama Cato appeared and won great 
popularity; and during the years 171 3-1 719, he con- 
tributed largely to The Guardian, The Freeholder, and 
the Old Whig. Next to Cato, his political writings w-ere 
the chief cause of his fame in his own day, but, while 



226 A History of English Literature 

these have now sunk into obscurity, his gentle satire in 
The Tatler and The Spectator, above all his picture of 
Sir Roger de Coverley, are the reason for his lasting 
fame. 

The quiet fairness of Addison's political writings was 
of a piece with his nature. His serenity and easy suc- 




ADDISON S WALK, OXFORD 



cess were no doubt exasperating at times, and several, 
among them Steele and Pope, had quarrels with him. 
But Steele was impetuous and Pope disposed to back- 
biting. Addison was amazingly unruffled under any cir- 
cumstances. In this quiet gentlemanly way he presided 
for a time over the wits at Button's Coffee-House. But 
his presence was felt rather than heard ; he was too shy 
to take part in general talk and too reserved to enter into 



The Eighteenth Century 227 

disputation. It was said, however, that among a few 
friends he talked beautifully. " There is no such thing," 
he himself wrote, " as real conversation but between two 
persons." He drew his own picture in the figure of the 
Spectator, modest, observant, urbane. 

While he was at the height of his political fame Ad- 
dison married, in 1716, the Countess of Warwick, and 
thereafter lived at Holland House. Soon after his ap- 
pointment as Secretary of State, however, he was forced 
to resign on account of ill health, and two years later, 
June 17, 1 7 19, he died. He was buried in Westminster 
Abbey. 

Works. In his own generation Addison was counted 
a great poet. Without doubt certain passages of Cato 
and The Campaign, as well as his hymn beginning " The 
spacious firmament on high/' show a large dignity uncom- 
mon in his age. A good example of his poetry at its 
best is the description in the Campaign of Marlborough 
as the angel directing the storm — 

So when an angel by divine command 
With rising tempests shakes a guilty land, 
Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past, 
Calm and serene he drives the furious blast; 
And pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform, 
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm. 

But the heroic couplet was capable of better things than 
this, as Pope was soon to show. Addison's real merit 
lay in his essays, particularly in The Spectator. 

Richard Steele (1672-1729), his school friend, was 
the pioneer, but Addison did the better work. In 1709 
Steele conceived the idea of a small periodical, The 



228 A History of English Literature 

Tatler, each number to consist chiefly of a brief essay 
in the " familiar " style on such subjects as " Mr. Bicker- 
staff visits a Friend," or " Recollections of Childhood." 
This was a new kind of paper, from which the later 
magazine was to grow. The Tatler ran for two years ; 

then Steele conceived 
the idea of The Spec- 
tator, to be issued simi- 
larly. Addison wrote 
only 42 out of 271 num- 
bers of The Tatler, but 
he did the chief work 
in The Spectator, 274 
numbers out of 555. 
What is more, he is re- 
sponsible for the three 
chief characters in the 
Sir Roger de Coverley 
Papers, which appeared 
from time to time 
richard steele j n The Spectator, The 

most important of these characters is of course the old 
knight himself. His quaint figure and sturdy honesty, 
whether he is seen in his own church or in town at the 
theater or the Abbey, are perennially potent among all 
sorts of readers. Sir Roger belongs with the immortal 
few — Falstaff, Don Quixote, Mr. Pickwick — who 
have become household names. If Addison had done 
nothing else but draw Sir Roger, he would still hold a very 
high place in our literature. 

But he did a good deal more — in these very Specta- 




The Eighteenth Century 229 

tor papers. Taine says, " It is no small thing to make 
morality fashionable. Addison did it, and it remained 
in fashion." The affectation of Dryden's time, that to 
be clever you must be immoral, was still common in the 
days of Queen Anne. Gradually, however, Addison led 
men to a cleaner wit, a more wholesome outlook on life. 
This he did by what can hardly be called satire — so gen- 
tle was it; he exposed with great good-nature the friv- 
olity and vanity of the gay world. Sometimes he would 
write a paper on so trivial a subject as " The Use of the 
Fan" ; at other times on so serious a subject as " Truth " ; 
but he was never harsh or dogmatic ; and — this is the 
great point — he was always bright and interesting. All 
at once, as it were, it became the thing to be decent ; and 
if the decency was only skin-deep, if the Englishman was 
really the Yahoo that Swift saw, at least he aspired, under 
Addison's lead, to better things. 

This, however, was Addison's message to his particular 
age ; it has little more than historical interest for us. The 
grace and urbanity of Addison's prose concerns us more 
closely. ' Whoever wishes," Dr. Johnson wrote, " to 
attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and ele- 
gant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights 
to the volumes of Addison." It would be difficult to 
name half a dozen men in the whole history of our litera- 
ture who have written such good prose as Addison's. 

ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744). 

Among the great men of his day Pope is the most 
representative of the age, the most truly " Augustan." 
Brilliant, witty, shallow, incapable of great passions, he 



230 A History of English Literature 

is the very genius of the time. More than this, Pope 
fixed the fashion in verse ; he was the standard of poets 
for half a century. In his life we shall find a strange 
mixture of small deceit and genuine hatred for the sordid 
and mean in literature. In the one instance we shall 
understand what Lady Mary Montagu meant when she 
called him the " wicked wasp of Twickenham " : in the 
other, what Dr. Johnson felt when he said, " A thousand 
years may elapse before there shall appear another man 
with a power of versification equal to that of Pope." 
When the worst has been said of his spiteful revenges 
and of the limitations of his poetry, it must be realized 
that he perfected the heroic couplet and that he ma le 
literature a calling in itself. Shakespeare was primarily 
a dramatist; Milton, though dedicated to poetry, was oc- 
cupied with public office ; Dryden wrote for fame and 
favor; in fact, till Pope's day mere writers, men who 
were nothing else, were usually looked down upon. Pope 
made literature a dignified p - :. " He served lit- 

erature," says A. M. Ward, one of his best biographer- 
"neither for power, like Swift; nor, like nearly all his 
contemporaries, for place and pay ; not even for fame 
chiefly, but for her own sake A 

Life. Alexander Pope was born May 21, 1688, in 
the heart of London. His father, a successful linen mer- 
chant, retired while Pope was a small boy to Binfield, 
near Windsor Forest. Deformed in body and a Roman 
Catholic, at a time when Papists were in great disfavor, 
Pope was shut out from an ordinary schooling and as- 
sociation with other boys. He grew up literally in his 
father's library, learning there a useful if superficial 




ALEXANDER POPE 
From the painting by Jervas 



The Eighteenth Century 233 

knowledge of the classics and beginning, while still a boy, 
to " lisp in numbers." Much influenced by the advice of 
William Walsh — " we have had great poets, but never 
one great poet that was correct/' — he worked hard over 
the form of his verse. His Pastorals (1709), written 
when he was in his teens, brought him some popularity, 
and his Essay on Criticism (1711) set him, at twenty- 
three, among the best poets of his time. Already he 
showed a mastery which made the generous admire and 
the envious assail. In his handling of the heroic couplet 
he surpassed his master, Dryden. 

With the envious Pope had much to do, for he him- 
self was suspicious and envious. He had already quar- 
reled with Wycherley, a decadent dramatist of Restora- 
tion days, who had sought help from Pope to prop his 
failing powers. Pope, flattered at first, was friendly 
enough; then, realizing his own skill and his friend's 
decrepitude, he insulted Wycherley; and years later, to 
save his fair name, published an altered correspondence. 
It is unnecessary to go through all of Pope's quarrels; 
the above instance is a symbol of how he bore himself; 
but it should be remembered that Swift was about the 
only man of his time with whom he did not quarrel, and 
that he even stooped to deceiving Swift in his friend's 
old age. He rightly resented unkind references to his 
religion and to his deformity; but if we think meanly of 
Wycherley for speaking of his " crazy carcase " and of 
Dennis for calling him a " hunch-backed toad," we must 
think still less of Pope for resorting to such treachery as 
altered correspondence. Addison knew what he was 
saying when he wrote to Lady Mary Montagu : " Leave 



25- A History or English Literature 

7 : ■: r .\ 5 5 : : :: as v:u :a:t : he vaill certain! v a lav vou same 



was popular his Windsor Forest (1713) added to his 
fame, and his 7u: haw - n ; fa a the hirst book of 
which was published in 1715, brought him wealth as 
wdDL W ith these thoroughly *' Augustan " poems, imita- 
tive a: v.- ha: 7 :aw a::: his ::::te:uz iraries nnsiaerea truly 
dasswal, his Eloisa to Abelard contrasts strikingly. 
Base 1 a sf volar in the Middle Ages, it embodies 

more emotion than zther : Pope's writings; but the 

Feeling is largely throttled by the heroic couplet. The 
same may he saiz :: the 7.7 a futishea i:t 17a:-. with the 
adaea : amme::: that 7'iae a: a :::■: k:::w ertauvh Greek 
:r sufh:ie:taly understand toe spirit :: H inner :; make a 
ma trzttslatiim This was zerceivez by 5: rue critics :: 
his : lay. I: a pretty poem, Mr. Pope/' Bentley 
said to him, "but you must not call it Homer/' 7e:u:- 
ahy szezkiuz:. hiwever. Pine's 77*,:,: and his 7 h waa; 
i"a:-i-_'; were s: zazwdzr that ::r ntire than a cert- 
vary they wershadiwea ah ither trausiatiius. 

Vhhen he has: became fantaus. 7;ae sauvht t: be a 
::b::-7ao aiatatar, ana. ::a.u:mv himself urn inherit-: r 
of Dryden, he for a while lorded it over the wits at 
Will's in oppositi tc the : art :: King jseph** at 
Bvrtius 7a: ins zany ::ula nit stana the strain. In 
:y:>. with the : ttntey realized :n his 77/ vm he :aaa: 
t; a villa a: Twickenham, ;u the Thames : ust west 1: 



The Eighteenth Century 235 

London. Here, as in his verses, he was formal, elegant. 
He laid out geometrical gardens and artificial grottoes — 
made, in fact, a sort of miniature Versailles, — where, as 
king of the monarchy of letters, he strove to bring back 
the golden age. He lived at Twickenham till his death 
in 1744. 

Among the many writings of Pope during his life at 
Twickenham three stand out conspicuously: the Essay 
on Man (1732-34), the Epistle to Arbuthnot (1735), 
and the Dunciad (1 728-1 743). The first, pretending to 
be a philosophical poem, amounts only to a collection of 
clever sayings, many of them second-hand, but it shows 
Pope's " power of versification " undiminished. The 
Epistle, the best example of Pope's " familiar " verse, is 
particularly famous for the lines on Atticus — in which 
he takes revenge on Addison. In the Dunciad Pope pays 
off old scores — so many of them that the modern reader 
is bewildered by the host of obscure names and disgusted 
by the endless abuse; — but, equally characteristic of him, 
he makes unflinching war on " Grub Street " — on the 
venal scribblers that " stung honest folk for a crown 
piece. " 

Works. Pope's nature-poetry, like that of his con- 
temporaries, has one very serious defect: it does not 
depict nature. Either he describes nature made over by 
man, where 

Grove nods at grove ; each alley has a brother ; 

or he pictures a conventional scene, peopled with classic 
gods and goddesses. Human nature was the only kind 
of nature that the Au^ustans understood. And since the 



236 A History of English Literature 

poets usually observed human nature as it appeared in 
the salon, they naturally handled light themes best. For 
the perfect writing of this bric-a-brac, Dresden-China 
poetry there was necessary a nimble wit, the power to 
turn a pretty phrase. This wit and power no one sup- 
plied better than Pope, and of this type of poetry — to 
which the heroic couplet, with its formal grace, is ad- 
mirably suited — there is no better example than his 
Rape of the Lock, a poem which tells how a young gallant 
dared to snip off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair. 

Perfection of form, then — the ideal of the times — 
was Pope's great merit. In his philosophical poems even, 
such as the Essay 011 Criticism and the Essay on Man, 
there is no sustained thought, no progressive argument. 
But there are many brilliant phrases, clever maxims. — 
each neatly packed away in its couplet. Such couplets, 
when they are clever, make favorite quotations : and 
Pope, though the thoughts are not always original, has 
given us many familiar quotations. A few of these may 
serve to remind the reader that, more often than he 
realizes, his indebtedness is to Pope. 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: 
Man never is, but always to be blest. 

An honest man 's the noblest work of God. 

T is education forms the common mind: 
Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined. 

A little learning is a dangerous thing ; 
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. 

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 



The Eighteenth Century 237 

True wit is nature to advantage dressed. 

To err is human, to forgive divine. 

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, 
With loads of learned lumber in his head. 

These quotations give an excellent idea of Pope's heroic 
couplet — compact, carefully balanced, neatly turned. 
But when Dr. Johnson spoke of Pope's " power of versifi- 
cation " he meant more than this. Except in dealing with 
nature, Pope was a master at adapting the rhythm and 
language to his subject, at making, as he himself put it, 
the sound " seem an echo to the sense.'' A good ex- 
ample of how he could do this occurs in the Essay on 
Criticism, in the passage where he illustrates the idea at 
the same time that he explains it : 

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 

The line too labours, and the words move slow : 

Xot so when swift Camilla scours the plain. 

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main. 

It is safe to defy any one to read the first two lines of 
this passage swiftly, or the last two slowly. 

When we turn from Pope's versification to the thought 
of his poems, we find him at his best in satire. Like 
Dryden, he understood satire; he distinguished it from 
senseless and extravagant abuse; before he turned on 
his victim, he gave some measure of praise — raised a 
" presumption " of generosity in his own favor, as it 
were. Of course he finally overstated the case — else it 
would not have been satire; but he prepared the way so 
delicately and overstated so moderately that his satire 



238 A History of English Literature 

was effective. The following lines on Addison are not 
true, but they are so nearly true that they exactly served 
Pope's purpose of making his readers think that Addison 
was a little worse than the fact : 

Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires 
True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires ; 
" Blest with each talent and each art to please, 
And born to write, converse, and live with ease ; 
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, 
Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, 
View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, 
And hate for arts that caus'd himself to rise; 
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; 
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, 
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike ; 

Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? 
Who would not weep if Atticus were he? 

One may well wonder, if this were all, why Pope's is 
so distinguished a name. A great versifier, a clever 
satirist — is this sufficient reason for such glory? The 
picture, however, is not complete without the additional 
point — a most important point in judging a poet — that 
Pope occasionally rises to noble poetry. Few better ex- 
amples of this can be found than the closing lines of the 
Dunciad: 

Lo ! thy dread empire, Chaos ! is restored ; 
Light dies before thy uncreating word; 
Thy hand, great Anarch ! lets the curtain fall, 
And universal darkness buries all. 

It is said that Pope's voice failed him when he repeated 



The Eighteenth Century 239 

these lines; and when Dr. Johnson was told that this 
was the case, he remarked, " And well it might, sir, for 
they are noble lines/' 

DANIEL DEFOE (1661-1731). 

A clever satirist and pamphleteer, Defoe reminds us of 
the men of his time. In many ways, however, he has 
little in common with his age. He wrote in a careless, 
redundant style, instead of with precise formality; and 
socially he did not belong with the city wits who gathered 
at the coffee-houses. A shrewd journalist, political job- 
ber, and jack of all trades, he left no stone unturned to 
further his own ends; and in both public and private life 
he was given to double dealing. Nevertheless, it must not 
be forgotten that through Robinson Crusoe he enjoys a 
distinction rivaled among his contemporaries by no one. 

Life. Defoe, born in London in 1661, 1 was the son 
of a butcher. All we know of his education is that he 
spent five years at an academy in Newington Green. 
Swift referred to him as " an illiterate fellow, whose 
name I forget," but, though Defoe was not an accom- 
plished scholar, illiteracy cannot be charged against a 
man who knew so much — wherever he got it — and 
who wrote to such good purpose. 

During about a dozen years after he left school, Defoe 
turned his hand to all sorts of work: he was a hosier, a 
commission merchant, a manufacturer of tiles, a partisan 
of Monmouth in the rebellion of 1685, and a writer of 
pamphlets. In 1692 he failed financially and was for 
some time in hiding; but two years later, for his pam- 

1 Possibly as early as 1659. 



240 A History of English Literature 



phlets in favor of William III, he was made Accountant 
to the Commissioners of the Glass Duty, a position which 
he held for five years. In 1701 he wrote the True Bom 
Englishman, in defense of the king. The most remark- 
able work of these early years, however, is the Essay on 
Projects (1697), in which Defoe shows great knowledge 

of men and affairs and 
a prophetic insight into 
modern business prob- 
lems. In 1702 a satire, 
his Shortest Way with 
the Dissenters, brought 
him to the pillory with 
fine and imprisonment. 
But Defoe had a way 
of coming out on top, 
and his clever Hymn to 
the Pillory won him so 
much popularity that 
the authorities had to 
remove him at once 
from the stocks. In 
prison his pen was as active as ever. While there he 
wrote his History of the Great Storm, as vivid as if he 
had really seen it, and began his Review of the Affairs of 
France, a periodical which he wrote almost entirely by 
himself and issued for a dozen years. After a little more 
than a year in jail he was released; for Harley, later the 
patron of Swift, saw Defoe's value as a pamphleteer. 

To follow Defoe through his political windings for 
the next fifteen years would be a long story. He usually 




DEFOE IX THE PILLORY 



The Eighteenth Century 241 

came out on the winning side. A Whig heretofore, he 
became an ardent Tory under Harley; four years later 
he served the Whigs; and in 17 10, when the Tories came 
back, he asserted that his true allegiance was to the Queen 
and so found himself a Tory once more. Within a year 
after the accession of George I, however, though he had 
been found guilty of libel against the new King, he man- 
aged his last change of party; as a Whig now, he act- 
ually served the new government — served it by playing 
false with a Jacobite friend, one Mist, whose Journals he 
pretended to aid, but really kept " disabled and enervated." 

Through all this political activity Defoe's pen was busy 
on a variety of subjects: the History of the Union 1 
(1709); The Secret History of One Year 2 (1714); a 
History of the Wars of Charles XII (171 5) ; and nu- 
merous pamphlets and journals. The Apparition of Mrs. 
Veal ( 1706) was his first fiction, and it points the way to 
his greatest work. Nearly sixty when Robinson Crusoe 
(1719) appeared, he continued for ten years to pour out 
tales of adventure, such as Captain Singleton (1720) and 
Moll Flanders (1722). His Journal of the Plague Year 
(1722) is as vivid as the diary of Pepys. 3 During these 
years, moreover, he kept up his business schemes, which 
usually ended in disaster. In 1729 he was hiding from 
creditors again. Finally, worn out with gout, apoplexy, 
and hard work, he died in 173 1. 4 

Works. Defoe was no poet, but he could make verses 

1 That is, between England and Scotland. 

2 The year after the accession of William III. 

3 The Plague Year was 1665, when Defoe was only four. 

4 The date of Defoe's death is not certain, but investigation favors 
I73I- 



242 A History of English Literature 

jingle to good effect. His Hymn to the Pillory, begin- 
ning 

Hail, hieroglyphic state machine, 

Contrived to punish fancy in, 

is the best example of his verse. His political writings 
have even less literary value now. His fame, therefore, 
rests on his novels, particularly on Robinson Crusoe. 
Defoe got the idea of his story chiefly from the adven- 
tures of Alexander Selkirk, who returned to London in 
171 1. As in his History of the Great Storm and his 
Journal of the Plague Year, Defoe wrote with such pro- 
fusion of minute detail and such likeness to the truth 
that he might really have gone through the experiences 
of Crusoe; he knew more about Selkirk's adventures than 
Selkirk did himself. This style of story, the adventures 
of an inconspicuous person, often of a rogue or vagabond 
— whereas the old tales had dealt usually with noble and 
knightly persons, — was already popular on the Continent 
and, though it was not new in England, was first made 
popular there by Defoe. Defoe's importance, then, is 
two-fold : he was the chief fore-runner of the English 
novelists; and he wrote one of the few books that is read 
and re-read all over the world. 

THE AGE OF JOHNSON (1740-1780). 

So far as the great writers of Johnson's time are con- 
cerned, the classical tradition of Pope's Age is carried on. 
And though the city life of the day smacks more of the 
tavern than of the drawing-room — though the delicate 
wit of Addison and Pope is gone — no great distinction 
need be made between the periods of Pope and Johnson 



The Eighteenth Century 243 

were it not for two important developments : the novel and 
the " return to nature. " 

The novel should be clearly distinguished from the 
romances and tales which preceded it. The'y dealt chiefly 
with a succession of incidents, rarely woven into a plot — 
that is, an arrangement by which all the incidents work 
together to produce a main situation. Further, though 
some of the old tales depicted vivid characters, they rarely 
portrayed the development of those characters through 
successive chapters ; and still more rarely did they develop 
their characters in relation to the development of the plot. 
A novel, then, is a fictitious story in which the develop- 
ment of characters or of events or of both either produces 
a main situation or brings out some striking condition of 
real life. 1 Sir Roger de Coverley thus has decided char- 
acteristics of the novel; Robinson Crusoe has still more. 
It was not till Richardson and Fielding, however, that 
this form of literature reached anything like maturity. 

The other development — the return to nature — began 
very timidly and met with sturdy opposition from Dr. 
Johnson and his allies. Slowly it gained ground, never- 
theless, till in the last twenty years of the century it had 
become more than a reaction : it was an as;e in itself. 



*t> v 



SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784). 
Johnson was the last of the great literary dictators. 
He held, even more than Dryden and Pope, a position 

1 There are many variations, of course, from the narrow definition. 
The " historical novel/' for instance, is not history and only tends 
to be a novel, but in its very selection of those details which serve the 
plot it is a good example of the main distinction between the novel 
and narrative history. See appendix, p. 416. 



244 A History of English Literature 



of authority among the writers of his time — a position 
difficult for us to realize in a day when no single man's 
word is law. Before the leveling process of modern 
democracy, however, before the French Revolution, a 
dictator was as natural in letters as in the state. That 
Johnson rose from poverty to such power, especially 

among men like Burke, 
Garrick, and Reynolds, 
is the best proof of his 
towering intellect and 
masterful personality. 
He was at his best in 
conversation, particular- 
ly in contention; in the 
famous " club " which 
gathered round him he 
could talk any man down 
except Burke; and when 
logic failed him, he thun- 
dered his opponent into 
silence. In spite of his 
uncouth figure and bullying threats, however, Johnson 
won his preeminence by real merit : by his vigorous sin- 
cerity, by " a memory that would convict any author 
of plagiarism," by a judgment which commanded re- 
spect, and by a sympathy which took strong hold on 
men's hearts. Boswell, his faithful biographer, who 
filled several volumes with the remarks of his hero, has 
given us a vivid picture of the great man. Xo one in all 
literature stands out more prominently as a personality 
than Dr. Johnson. And though his books are written in 




SAMUEL JOHN SOX 



The Eighteenth Century 245 

a stilted, sententious style, and so are little read to-day, 
his conversation, as recorded, abounds in lively humor and 
sturdy common-sense. 

Life.. Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield on Sep- 
tember 18, 1709. In the shop of his father, who was a 
bookseller, he early began his acquaintance with litera- 
ture; and possessed of a marvelous memory and a 
veritable greed for books, he acquired not only a thorough 
knowledge of the classics, but a great fund of miscel- 
laneous information. " Sir," he said to Bos well years 
later, " in my early years I read very hard ; it is a sad 
reflection but a true one that I knew almost as much at 
eighteen as I do now." Ungainly, half blind, afflicted 
with scrofula, and depressed by fits of melancholy, he 
got on poorly with other boys, but at school he was 
counted the " best scholar." In 1728 he went to Oxford, 
but his course there was irregular, interrupted by poverty 
and disease, and he left in 1731 without a degree. Pride, 
accentuated to sensitiveness, made these years unhappy 
for him ; but through the pride and gloom his sturdy in- 
dependence gradually asserted itself. The story — how 
he flung out the window a pair of shoes left kindly at 
his door, because he would rather stand honestly on his 
own feet, " in frost and mud if need be," than walk in 
another man's shoes, — reveals the sensitiveness which 
was to bring him so much suffering, but it shows, too, the 
sturdy honesty which was to bring him success. 

It was five years before Johnson went up to London 
and took to writing as a profession. For a time, to be 
sure, he had lived as a bookseller's " hack " in Birming- 
ham, but most of these years were spent at Lichfield, in 



246 A History of English Literature 

unsuccessful school-teaching. His " convulsive starts 
and odd gesticulations " frightened parents, and he had 
only three pupils altogether, among whom was Garrick. 
In 1735 he married Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, a widow years 
older than himself. Fat, coarse, " painted half an inch 
thick," and dressed in " flaring and fantastick " clothes, 
she appeared to near-sighted Johnson the most beautiful 
of her sex. 

In 1737 Johnson sought his fortune in London. " But 
literature/'' as Macaulay says, " had ceased to flourish 
under the patronage of the great, and had not yet begun 
to flourish under the patronage of the public." Johnson, 
like other hack-writers of the day, was forced to live in 
a garret and to eat mean fare in underground cook-shops, 
where the only napkin was the back of a Newfoundland 
dog. Soon he found work on the Gentleman's Magazine, 
and his satiric poem, London ( 1738) brought him fame 
if not riches. His Life of Savage (1744) brought him 
added distinction, and in 1747 he was invited by several 
booksellers to compile a Dictionary of the English Lan- 
guage. The Earl of Chesterfield, who was addressed as 
patron, had not counted on Johnson's uncouth presence. 
He " was by no means desirous," says Macaulay, " to see 
all his carpets blackened with the London mud . . . by 
an absent, awkward scholar, who gave strange starts and 
uttered strange growls, who dressed like a scarecrow ana 
ate like a cormorant." The upshot was that Chesterfield 
left Johnson to work his own way in poverty and ob- 
scurity till, eight years later, the Dictionary was finished; 
then the Earl, writing two papers in its praise, was ready 
to play the patron. But Johnson remarked to Garrick, 



The Eighteenth Century 247 

u I have sailed a long and painful voyage round the world 
of the English language; and does he now send out two 
cock-boats to tow me into harbor ? " And to Chester- 
field he wrote : " Seven years, my lord, have now past, 
since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed 
from your door ; during which time I have been pushing 
on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to 
complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of 
publication, without one act of assistance, one word of 
encouragement, or one smile of favor. Such treatment 
I did not expect, for I never had a patron before. . . . 
Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern 
on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he 
has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The 
notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, 
had it been early, had been kind ; but it has been delayed 
till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am soli- 
tary, 1 and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not 
want it." 

While he was at work on the Dictionary, Johnson 
found time for several literary labors. His Vanity of 
Human Wishes (1749), in the style of his London, in- 
creased his fame ; in the same year Garrick produced his 
tragedy Irene, written chiefly in Lichfield days; and in 
1750 he began The Rambler, a periodical after the style 
of Addison's Spectator. The Rambler, which ran for 
two years, was widely read and greatly praised; in fact, 
it set Johnson permanently in a position to scorn, three 
years later, the tardy help of Chesterfield. The Idler 
(1758-1760), a similar periodical, met with similar suc- 

1 Johnson's wife died in 1752. 



248 A History of English Literature - 

cess; and Rasselas (1759), a novel written in a week to 
defray the expenses of his mother's funeral, enjoyed a 
long popularity. 

Though Johnson's literary work continued till his death, 
after 1762 he was less active than formerly. The cause 
of this was a pension from George III of £300 a year; 
and Johnson, who told Boswell that " no man but a block- 
head ever wrote except for money," now found it pos- 
sible and comfortable to diminish labors which hitherto 
had been arduous. This was not unfortunate for the 
world, since Johnson in these last years was able to give 
time to friends and conversation. He was granted the 
degree of " doctor " by Oxford and was given a profes- 
sorship by the Royal Academy. It is at this time that 
we find him presiding over the " club," among men of 
such various accomplishments as Garrick, Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, Goldsmith, Gibbon, and Burke. These men 
met once a week at the Turk's Head in Gerrard Street, 
and what they said, especially what Johnson said, could 
make or mar the reputation of a book. On certain points 
— such as Scotchmen and politics — he was violently 
prejudiced. " Oats " he had defined in his Dictionary as 
" a grain which is generally given to horses, but in Scot- 
land supports the people"; and of his friend Burke he 
said, " Sir, he is a cursed Whig, a bottomless Whig, as 
they all are now." This Tory prejudice appears in his 
pamphlet, Taxation no Tyranny (1775), written against 
the American colonists, and appears again amusingly 
when, on being asked what he replied to a compliment 
from the king, he said, " It was not for me to bandy civili- 
ties with my sovereign." Unfitted as Johnson was to (lis- 



The Eighteenth Century 



249 




DR. JOHNSON AND HIS CLUB 



cuss politics, however, no man was better fitted to discuss 
literature and manners; and though* Boswell recorded 
much that was trivial — as Johnson's reply to the ques- 
tion, "What would you do, sir, if locked up in a tower 
with a baby?" — the great body of the conversation set 
down gives us a clear picture of his humor and wisdom. 
What gave these qualities backbone, moreover, was his 
rugged sincerity. " Clear your mind of cant," he said 
to Boswell ; and nothing could be more characteristic 
than his frank reply to a lady who asked him why he 
defined " pastern " as the " knee of a horse," — " Igno- 
rance, madam," he answered simply, " pure igno- 
rance." 

Johnson spent much time in his later years at the 



250 A History of English Literature 

house of a Mr. Thrale, a wealthy brewer, whose brilliant 
wife was for a dozen years the great lexicographer's in- 
timate friend and admirer. Besides the Thrales and his 
literary friends, moreover, Johnson had a third circle of 
acquaintances. Ready to resent the action of a rich 
patron like Chesterfield, or to beat an insolent bookseller, 
like Osborne, Johnson submitted to all sorts of impostors 
among the poor. At one time he had living under his 
roof in a court off Fleet Street a blind old lady named 
Mrs. Williams, the destitute Mrs. Desmoulins and her 
daughter Polly, and a quack doctor named Levett. This 
" strange menagerie " he supported for years, though they 
complained and quarreled most of the time. 

There are many anecdotes of Johnson's mannerisms — 
how he went back to touch the posts in the streets, how 
he twitched off the slipper of a lady next him at table, — 
but in noticing the grotesqueness and his great puffing 
form, we must not lose sight of the fact that he was 
able to carry these things off. Men loved him as well as 
admired him. 

Though Johnson wrote little after he received his pen- 
sion, he edited Shakespeare's Plays in 1765, wrote in 
1775 a record of his journey with Bos well to the Western 
Islands of Scotland, and produced, between 1777 and 
1781, the prefaces for an edition of English poets — 
prefaces later collected as his Lives of the Poets. Soon 
after, he was attacked by dropsy and in 1784 (Dec. 13) 
he died — refusing just before his death to take opiates, 
" for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God 
unclouded. " He was buried with great honor beside 
Garrick in Westminster Abbey. 



The Eighteenth Century 



251 



Works. Johnson talked better than he wrote. His 
love of balanced sentences and of long Latin words pro- 
duced a pompous style popular in his own day, but no 
longer read. His Rambler, for instance, lacks the charm 
of the Spectator largely because it wants Addison's grace- 
ful style. The same may be said, generally, of all John- 
son's prose, though in 
his letters and the Lives 
of the Poets, which ap- 
proach his conversa- 
tional style, there is less 
of the pompous balance. 
Rasselas, his novel, — 
an Abyssinian tale, — 
goes so far as to trans- 
plant eighteenth cen- 
tury manners and ideas 
to a savage people, 
while the characters all 
talk alike — in stilted, 
elegant sentences. The 
same general criticism 
may be made of John- 
son's poetry : full of thought, vigor, and polish, it is pond- 
erous, difficult for any other generation to read. It should 
be remembered, nevertheless, that Johnson was one of the 
most popular writers in his own time; and, if we find his 
works hard to read, we should realize that of the writers 
of the heroic couplet Dryden, Pope, and Goldsmith are 
the only poets still read widely, while of eighteenth cen- 
tury prose, in essay form, Addison and Burke are the 




Copyright photo. Walker & Oockerell, Luiia^a, E. C. 
JAMES BOSWELL 



252 A History of English Literature 

only writers who still claim considerable attention. The 
fact is, the so-called " classic " movement had done its 
work : poetry and prose had been reduced to symmetry 
and order. Dr. Johnson was the last of the old school; 
a reaction was at hand. 

To understand Johnson's power over language, then, 
we must turn to his conversations. Thanks' to Boswell, 
we may count these a considerable part of his works. 
They abound with sayings that have become familiar 
quotations ; sayings that reveal the humor, wisdom, sin- 
cerity — in short, the greatness — of the great dictator 
of letters. " It matters not how a man dies, but how he 
lives " — " A cow is a very good animal in the held : but 
we turn her out of a garden '" — " Attack is the reaction. 
I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds " — 
" Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel " — " Hell 
is paved with good intentions." It is such sentences as 
these that justify Johnson's fame. 

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728-1774). 

Like Johnson, Goldsmith fought his way up from pov- 
erty and obscurity by the power of his pen. But unlike 
Johnson, he wrote better than he talked ; in fact, he said 
so many foolish things that, Boswell always excepted, he 
was the butt of the " club." Still, every one loved him: 
a great-hearted, mirthful vagabond. And he was a man, 
Doctor Johnson said, " who, whatever he wrote, did it 
better than any other man could do." The fame of the 
author of The Vicar of Wakefield, The Deserted Ullage, 
and She Stoops to Conquer needs no champion. 

Life. Oliver Goldsmith was born on November 10, 



The Eighteenth Century 253 

1728, in the village of Pallas, near Dublin. The son of a 
father as kindly and incompetent as Dr. Primrose in his 
own Vicar of Wakefield, he grew up in what Irving calls 
" virtue and poverty." Young Oliver passed a pictur- 
esque youth, beginning with his schooling under " Paddy " 
Byrne and continuing through an irregular career at 
Trinity College, Dublin. Once, with the intention of 
going to America, he started for Cork, but he spent most 
of his money before he got out of Dublin. After grad- 
uating from college, in 1750, he studied for the ministry, 
but presented himself for ordination in scarlet breeches 
and was refused by the bishop. Again he started for 
America, but his ship got aw T ay while he was gaming in 
a tavern. Thereafter he studied medicine in Edinburgh 
for a couple of years, and then went to the Continent 
with the avowed purpose of completing his work. Most 
of his time, however, was spent in wandering about the 
country, earning his way by playing the flute — 

Yet would the village praise my wondrous power, 
And dance forgetful of the noontide hour. 

Finally, like so many " poor-devil authors," he found his 
way to London. There he lived for a while at the top 
of " Breakneck Stairs " or " among the beggars of Axe 
Lane." For a time he set up as a doctor and applied in 
1758 for a medical appointment to India. It is char- 
acteristic that before the examination he spent all his 
money on fine clothes and better lodgings ; and it is equally 
to the point that he failed in the examination — for he 
usually failed in everything but writing. 

Gradually his pen became known. His writings, in 



254 A History of English Literature 

The Bee (1759) an d in Newberry's Public Ledger (1760) 
attracted the attention of Dr. Johnson, who sought him 
out and befriended him. The burly doctor over-rode the 
objections to his being made an original member of the 
" club " in 1764; and the same year, when Goldsmith 
had squandered his recent prosperity on new lodgings in 
Wine Office Court, Johnson helped him to sell the manu- 
script of The Vicar for sixty pounds. It was not, pub- 
lished till two years later (1766), so the first work which 
brought Goldsmith conspicuous fame was The Traveller 
(1764). His other long poem, The Deserted Village, 
belongs to the year 1770, while his two plays, The Good- 
Natured Man and She Stoops to Conquer, belong to the 
years 1767 and 1773 respectively. Besides these master- 
pieces, Goldsmith, made honorary professor of history in 
1769 by the Royal Academy, wrote an English History 
(1764), a Roman History (1769), a Greek History 
(1774), and a History of Animated Nature (1774). 
Concerning the last of these Johnson said : " Goldsmith, 
sir, will give us a very fine book upon the subject; but 
if he can distinguish a cow from a horse, that, I believe, 
may be the extent of his knowledge of natural history." 
In the Retaliation (1774), a poem in reply to Garrick's 
jests at his expense, Goldsmith showed that he could 
hold his own in written repartee. 

Goldsmith never settled into the dignity of the rest of 
the literary group to which he belonged. He was a sim- 
ple youth all his life, delighting in gay waistcoats, be- 
friending the poor, and managing to exist only through 
the charity of his friends. In his forty-seventh year he 
died suddenly, owing two thousand pounds. " Was ever 



The Eighteenth Century 255 

poet so trusted before?" Johnson wrote to Boswell; 
and Reynolds, " who passed no day without a line/" 
was so moved that he " did not touch the pencil for 
that day." 

Works. In three fields of literature Goldsmith equaled 
any writer of his day. The Vicar of Wakefield, unlike 
most of the novels of the time, escapes from the tedious 
elegance that only a Georgian could endure; it has taken 
its place beside Sir Roger and Gulliver. " Goldsmith did 
everything happily," says Coleridge; and no comment 
could better describe the charm of the prose in The Vicar, 
prose as graceful as Addison's, as humorous as — no one's 
but Goldsmith's. 

In the Deserted Village Goldsmith revealed that, of 
all those following Pope's tradition, no one could turn 
a heroic couplet better than he. The point of the poem 
may be exaggerated; that is, the first scene, of "sweet 
Auburn " in " peace and plenty," pictures an English, not 
an Irish, village ; whereas the same village deserted, in 
misery, turns out to be Irish enough ; but this little in- 
consistency is largely beside the point. The chief charm 
of the poem lies in the picture of the village preacher, 

passing rich with forty pounds a year, 
whose 

pity gave ere charity began; 

in the descriptions of the pleasant scene; and in the happy 
turn of the verse. Goldsmith, alone with Pope, showed 
that the heroic couplet might on occasion reach lofty ex- 
pression — as in the concluding lines about the country 
parson : 



256 A History of English Literature 

To them his heart, his love, his griefs were give::. 

his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. 
As seme taii cliff that lifts its awful form, 
S his from the ale and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head. 

In this poem, too, as we shall have reason to notice later, 
Goldsmith she-wed that he felt the new impulse of the 
return to nature. Except that it is in heroic couplets, it 
belongs, in association, less with Johnson than with Gow- 
per and Gray. 

The third field in which Goldsmith displayed extraor- 
dinary skill is the drama. His special contribution to bis 
age was that he, together with Sheridan, author of The 
Rii'ci.s and The School for Scandal, dealt the death-blow 
to the sentimental plays popular in the third quarter of 
the eighteenth century. In addition. Goldsmith was the 
only man of his day besides Sheridan to write a play that 
" goes " as well now as it did over a hundred years ago: 
She Stoops to Conquer has perennial success. 

EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797). 

" Burke." Dr. Johnson said. " does not talk from a 
desire of distinction, but because his mind is full." And 
the Whig leader. Fox, remarked, " I have learnt more 
from my right honorable friend than from all the men 
with whom I ever conversed." Yet Burke, though he 
was a recognized power in the State and in literature, did 
not achieve the political distinction expected by his 
friends. This was due partly to the fact that he was a 
philosopher rather than a practical politician : he was 



The Eighteenth Century 257 

nearly always on the minority side. But it was due 
largely to his irascible nature; once he threw a book at 
the Treasurer of the Navy and another time he told the 
House of Commons that he " could teach a pack of 
hounds to yelp with greater melody and more comprehen- 
sion." Now, however, when the little men of his time 
have fallen into obscurity, he towers above nearly all of 
his contemporaries, and " the noble Lord in the blue rib- 
band " 1 is scarcely remembered but for his inglorious 
part in Burke's speech. 

Life. Born in Dublin and educated at Trinity Col- 
lege, Dublin, Burke spent his early manhood in literary 
work, publishing in 1756 a treatise on The Sublime and 
the Beautiful. Beginning in 1759, ^ e wr ote Dodsley's 
Annual Register for thirty years. A few years later we 
find him a member of Johnson's " Club " and a great 
friend of Johnson, Garrick, and Reynolds. 

Burke entered public life in 1761, as private secretary 
to " Single Speech" Hamilton. In 1765 he was elected 
to the House of Commons, rose rapidly to prominence, if 
not to great place, and till 1794 was intimately associated 
with politics. A moderate Whig, he championed the 
cause of the Americans in 1775, but fifteen years later he 
won, though he did not deserve it, the name of turncoat 
for denouncing the Revolution in France. Though by 
this position he found himself on the king's side, he never 
became a Tory ; but he had to break with the more violent 
Whigs. His political creed, in short, was constitutional 
liberty — " Whenever a separation is made between lib- 
erty and justice, neither is in my opinion safe"; and if 

1 Lord North. 



2 5 8 



A History of English Literature 



he resented the tyranny of the king in the case of the 
Americans, he feared far more the tyranny of the French 
mob. Besides America and France, Burke made a care- 
ful study of the situation in India and led the impeach- 
ment charges against Warren Hastings. Here, as in his 
American work, he failed, in spite of his wisdom and 
eloquence: but the world now recognizes that England's 
later reforms in the administration of her colonies were 
largely the result of Burke's efforts. 

After 1794 Burke lived in retirement. He refused a 
peerage, in favor of pensions amounting to ±3700. and 
defended his choice in his famous Letter to a Xoble Lord 
I 1795 I. Failing rapidly in health, he died on July 9, 
1797, and was buried at Beaconsheld. 

Works. As Addison's prose is sometimes called con- 
versational, Burke's may be called oratorical. It needs 
to be read aloud for the best effect. The heavy 
monotony, however, which marked the rolling periods of 
inferior writers of his day is relieved by his vigorous 
phrases and sudden, short sentences. There is no better 
example of Burke's style at its best than his Speech on 
Conciliation zAtli America < 1 775 ^ . Among such elab- 
orate sentences as the following — " The voluntary flow 
of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the weight of its own 
rich luxuriance, has ever run with a more copious stream 
of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry husks 
of oppressed indigence," — we rind the quick, brief words 
that drive the points home : ' The ocean remains. You 
cannot pump this dry": — '"Despotism itself is obliged 
to truck and huckster": — " The people would occupy 
without grants": — "None will barter awav the im- 



The Eighteenth Century 259 

mediate jewel of his soul"; — " These are the cords of 
man"; — "It gives the strong-box itself." In addition 
to this vigorous, vivid style, Burke brought vast knowl- 
edge and broad political wisdom to his works : " He 
knew how the whole world lived." 

THE NOVEL. 

The promise of Sir Roger and Robinson Crusoe came 
to fruition, about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
in the novels of Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) and 
Henry Fielding (1707-1754). Mentioned together 
because they were the pioneers, no two men could be 
more dissimilar. Richardson was a gentle fat man, 
analytic and somewhat morbid, who owed his style to an 
extensive experience in writing love-letters for young 
ladies. Fielding was a hearty, out-of-doors man, often 
vulgar, but always robust, healthy, who owed his style 
to practical experience in writing plays and to the still 
more valuable experience of knowing how the world 
talked in all walks of life. Equally dissimilar are their 
novels. Richardson pictures a conflict of passions that 
is always governed by reflection and calculation. His 
men and women are too good or too bad — and always 
calculating. When they are good, moreover, it is too 
often in a sanctimonious, snuffling way. Fielding, in 
contrast, pictures for the most part ungoverned passions, 
often brutal, but sometimes noble; and his men and 
women are vividly real. Both writers take abundant 
pains to point the moral, sometimes to rub it in. Rich- 
ardson, as might be supposed, extols the strength of a 
studied virtue; Fielding champions generosity, goodness 



260 A History of English Literature 



at bottom, as opposed to insincerity and the show of 
virtue. " The finest composition of human nature, as 
well as the finest china, may have a flaw in it; and this, 
I am afraid, in either case is equally incurable: though, 
nevertheless, the pattern may remain of the highest 
value." Richardson carries little interest beyond that of 

being a pioneer, while 
Fielding, in creating 
real -characters. is 
of perennial interest. 
Thackeray and Dickens 
are in the direct line of 
literary descent from 
Fielding. 

Richardson was the 
first in the field, with 
his Pamela or Virtue 
Rewarded (1740), a 
story developed by let- 
ters. Fielding, who 
had been a dramatist 
hitherto, set out to 
write a take-off on the 
after a few chapters he 
forgot Richardson, and 




HEXRY FIELDING 



smug virtue of Pamela, but 
got interested in the work, 
produced Joseph Andrews (1742). Richardson wrote 
two other novels, Clarissa Harlozve (1748) and Sir 
Charles Grandison (1753). Fielding's greatest novel 
is Tom Jones (1749). His other two, Jonathan ]Vild 
(1743) and Amelia (' 175 1 ) reveal his power of de- 
picting real persons and real scenes, but the figure of 



The Eighteenth Century 261 

Squire Western in Tom Jones raises it above all his 
other work. A vigorous, intemperate, narrow-minded, 
but lovable old fellow, Squire Western lives more truly 
than any character of his kind between Falstaff and 
Mr. Pickwick. Ready to throw his daughter out of his 
house when he finds she is in love with the rascal Tom 
Jones, he cries out : " It's well for un I could not get 
at un: I'd a licked un. . . . He shan't ever have a 
morsel of meat of mine, or a varden to buy it. ... If 
she will ha' un, one smock shall be her portion." But 
when he is reconciled to the match, his enthusiasm is as 
keen as his anger was, and a couple of years later he 
protests that " the tattling of his little granddaughter 
... is sweeter music than the finest cry of dogs in 
England." 

Richardson and Fielding were followed by two novel- 
ists of distinction: Tobias George Smollett (1721- 
1771)9 who wrote realistic tales of adventure, particularly 
at sea, and Laurence Sterne (171 3-1 768), whose 
humor made one of his books immortal. Humphrey 
Clinker (1771) is Smollett's best-known novel, while 
Tristram Shandy (1767) is the chief cause of Sterne's 
fame. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield (1764), it should 
be remembered, further enriched the list of eighteenth 
century novels ; and though the best work of the succeed- 
ing period was along other lines, the realistic style of 
Fielding again became popular in the next century. 

THE RETURN TO NATURE (1770-1800). 

The reaction against the formal life and literature of 
the eighteenth century began slowly, but it may be traced 



262 A History of English Literature 

back to the days of Pope. In fact, it was the natural 
course for Englishmen; the so-called classical age, dom- 
inant from Dryden to Johnson, was the artificial course. 
This reassertion of what was most natural to the English 
character implied a return to the great masters of litera- 
ture before the days of Dryden and the French influence 
— to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton. Not 
the least result of this was a gradual breaking away from 
the tyranny of the heroic couplet; and though the main 
course of literature, under Johnson's leadership, followed 
the old form, the minor writers of the last half of the 
century realized the power of blank verse, Spenserian 
stanza, ballad measure, and four-foot couplets. As early 
as 1726 Thomson began to write his Seasons in blank 
verse ; and his Castle of Indolence (1748) was in the long 
neglected Spenserian stanza. Another — in fact, the 
most obvious — feature of the reaction was a return to 
the open country. For a while this interest was gentle, 
rural; it remained for Wordsworth, Byron, and Shelley, 
in the next century, to delight in really wild nature, un- 
touched by man ; a country churchyard, " the sheltered 
cot, the cultivated farm/' — the nature revealed in the 
poetry of Gray, Collins, Goldsmith, and Cowper, — is the 
interest of the later eighteenth century. If it seems 
rather tame to us, in comparison to the storm-swept 
mountains of Byron's poetry, it w T as wholly different from 
the city life of Pope, with its elegant gentlemen at the 
coffee-house and its elegant ladies riding in sedan-chairs. 
It meant, moreover, solitude, reflection. Man began to 
consider not so much the life about him as the life within 
him; and if this phase of eighteenth century life gave 



The Eighteenth Century 



263 



rise to a good deal of false sentiment and feeble melan- 
choly, it gave rise, too, to a spiritual depth unknown in 
Pope: the proper study of mankind, it was gradually 
realized, was not man alone, in his little outward life, 
but man in relation to nature, to the universe, and to 
God. Finally, the reaction against the elegance of city life 




STOKE POGES CHURCHYARD, THE SCENE OF GRAY S ELEGY 

meant a new interest in the " simple annals of the poor." 
These main qualities of the reaction must not be too 
definitely separated from the old traditions, which lingered 
so strongly that Gray and Cowper belong as much to the 
passing as to the coming age. Nothing begins all of a 
sudden, but grows out of the very thing which it repudi- 
ates. Thus Goldsmith, friend of Johnson and skilful 
writer of heroic couplets, unwittingly allied himself with 
much that Johnson openly or tacitly condemned — a real 



264 A History of English Literature 

fondness for nature and an interest in the life of the 
country poor. Still, all over Europe a new spirit of 
liberty was gathering force — to result in the French 
Revolution, in the overthrow not only of political kings, 
but of literary despots; to herald the age of democracy. 1 

The chief literary fore-runners of the new movement 
were Gray, Cowper, and Burns. 

Thomas Gray (1716-1771), a modest, scholarly man, 
wrote little. What he did write, moreover, received the 
careful polish of the poetry of his day. In his verses, 
however, — especially in his best verses, the Elegy in a 
Country Churchyard (1751) — he shows all the early 
characteristics of the reaction: a departure from the 
heroic couplet, 2 a love of rural nature — 

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds ; 

a tendency to sad reflection, manifest throughout the 
poem; and genuine interest in lowly life — 

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, 
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 

Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile, 
The short and simple annals of the poor. 

1 One must guard against the idea, however, that the reaction was 
sudden or even complete. An age has predominating tendencies, but 
is never only one thing at a time ; it grows out of what precedes. 
Thus naturalness flourished to a great extent in the time of Pope, 
while artificiality was often in evidence during the hey-day of liter- 
ary freedom. 

2 The poem is written in heroic verse, but riming alternately, not 
in couplets, — a form admirably suited to the dignified theme. 



The Eighteenth Century 265 

In addition, Gray shows in some of his other poems, such 
as The Bard and An Ode From the Norse Tongue, a then 
very unorthodox interest in the romantic Middle Ages. 
But this feature of the new movement did not gain great 
prominence till later, when it became so important that it 
gave its name to the age of Scott and Wordsworth; and 
even Gray, in spite of his fledgling interest, was actually 
frightened by the absurd horrors of Walpole's Castle of 
Otranto, an exaggerated imitation of Romantic novels. 

In measuring Gray's significance in the new movement 
we must not lose sight of his merit — apart from any age. 
He bears the distinction of never having published any- 
thing poor; and the excellence of his few poems, espe- 
cially of his great Elegy, has won him a high place among 
lovers of good poetry. 

William Cowper (1731-1800) had so much respect 
for the genius of Pope 
that he felt it almost 
presumptuous to pub- 
lish his blank-verse 
translation of Homer 
( 1 79 1 ) , far better than 
Pope's version in heroic 
couplets. In Cowper's 
poetry, too, there is 
abundant evidence of 
his respect for the 
eighteenth century tra- 
dition. Nevertheless, 
he shows as clearly as 
Gray the growing inter- 




WILLIAM COWPER 



266 A History of English Literature 

ests of the new age. His love 'of the pleasant country- 
side about Weston Underwood is the most noticeable 
trait : his country scenes are described with intimacy and 
relish. One of his best pictures is that of a woodman 
and his dog: 

Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned 
The cheerful haunts of man, to wield the axe 
And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear, 
From morn till eve his solitary task. 
Shaggy and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears 
And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur, 
His dog attends him. Close behind his heel 
Now creeps he slow; and now with many a frisk 
Wide scampering, snatches up the drifted snow 
With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout; 
Then shakes his powdered coat, and barks for joy. 

Cowper shows, too, like Gray, pensive melancholy and a 
love of solitude; while, more than Gray, he is aware of 
the defects of too much art: in the Task (1785), his 
best poem, he speaks of nature 

Performing such inimitable feats 

As she [Art] with all her rules can never reach. 

Here is a direct contradiction of Pope's theory, 

True art is nature to advantage drest, — 

though one feels that Cowper, with his dignified restraint, 
only dimly realized the parting of the ways. Among his 
great contemporaries only one had the violent love of 
freedom which could break through all the restraints of 
the schools. " Bobbie " Burns, the Scottish plowman, 



The Eighteenth Century 



267 



is the most positive example of the return to nature. 
With him poetry was not merely versified prose, but song. 
Though he died a year before Burke, his affinities are with 
Byron and Shelley : he was a full generation ahead of his 
time. . 



ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796). 

In Burns we shall find almost none of the typical char- 
acteristics of the eight- 
eenth century. This 
fact is partly due to his 
humble origin — on a 
remote country farm : 
he was not born, nor 
was he nurtured, in a 
literary circle. It is not 
surprising, therefore, 
to find him familiar 
with the Scottish land- 
scape or with the sim- 
ple country folk among 
whom he lived. His 
most outstanding qual- 
ity, however, is a vio- 
lent love of freedom. 
In his life it got him 
into all sorts of difficul- 
ties ; in his poetry it produced the fine burst of song which 
in its kind has never been equaled. 

Life. Burns was born at Alloway, Ayrshire, on Jan- 
uary 25, 1759. His early life was spent working for his 




ROBERT BURNS 



268 A History of English Literature 

father, a poor farmer. While still a boy Burns began 
to shine among his fellows, not only in feats of strength, 
but as the leading figure in a local debating club. A boon 
companion, however, he fell soon into idleness and drink- 
ing; and these two habits, coupled with an inability to 
resist the charms of nearly every lassie he met, played 
havoc with his farming. He stuck more or less reso- 
lutely to his plow, now at Lochlea, now at Mossgiel, 
finally at Ellisland, but never persistently enough to make 
a success of it. As excise officer in Dumfries he did no 
better, for he shut his eyes to the smuggling of his needy 
friends, and in verse and action insulted the government 
which gave him service. And his two visits to Edin- 
burgh, when he was a literary lion, though they brought 
him temporary popularity, left him poor and indignant. 

The first publication of Burns's poems, in 1786, in- 
cluded most of his longer pieces, such as The Cotter s 
Saturday Night and The Jolly Beggars, as well as some 
of his best songs. The little book brought him immediate 
fame; he was persuaded to visit Edinburgh; and on the 
way, it is said, he found the country people singing his 
songs, while the guests at inns got out of bed to see him 
and hear him talk. With " manners direct from God," 
and with conversation that overflowed with wit, humor, 
and pathos, he charmed Edinburgh society. But he could 
not live on adulation alone; and though a second edition 
of his poems (1787) brought him £500, a second trip to 
the capital revealed to him that society soon tired of its 
playthings. Full of what he called his father's " stub- 
born ungainly integrity/' he began to rail at rank and 
riches — 



The Eighteenth Century 269 

The rank is but the guinea's stamp ; 
The man 's the gowd for a' that. 

This fierce independence of Burns showed itself again 
when he was excise officer in Dumfries. He sent con- 
fiscated, cannon to aid the cause of the revolutionists in 
France, sat covered at the theater while God Save the 
King was sung, and once, when Pitt's health was pro- 




BIRTHPLACE OF BURXS, ALLOWAY 

posed, he called out, " Let us drink to the health of a 
greater and better man — George Washington." 

The life in Dumfries, with its conviviality, was fatal to 
Burns. He went to pieces rapidly, dying July 21, 1796, 
in his thirty-seventh year. 

In judging the character of Burns, we must make 
allowance, as Carlyle has pointed out, for the size of his 
orbit : that is, his deflections were relatively not so great 
as they would be for the ordinary man, with a small and 
clearly marked path to follow. Moreover, though we 
may rightly condemn his inconstancy, irreverence, and 



270 A History of English Literature 

intemperance, we find our strongest impulse one of love 
and admiration — love for the man who had such a 
tender, human heart; and admiration for the poet who 
could sing such irresistible songs. 

Works. The Cotter s Saturday Night is probably the 
most famous of Burns's longer poems. It gives a pleas- 
ant picture of a simple country family, with its sturdy in- 
tegrity and shrewd common sense — the kind of family 
that nurtured Burns. In Tarn O'Shanter, which tells of 
the midnight witches that beset a luckless drinker, Burns 
gives us some of his best humor — lively, never forced, 
a humor that is saved from mere cleverness by its kinship 
with pathos. The poet's heart gets the better of him 
and of his readers too. Nowhere is this combination of 
humor and pathos better revealed than in his Address to 
the Deil: 

An now, auld Cloots, I ken ye 're thinking 
A certain Bardie 's ranting drinking 
Some luckless hour will send him linkin 1 

To your black pit; 
But faith ! he '11 turn a corner jinkin, 2 

An' cheat you yet. 

It is in the Scottish dialect that Burns is at his best; his 
English verses are consciously literary and lifeless, but 
his native language is brimming with his lively nature, 
in such lines as : 

The best laid schemes o' mice and men 
Gang aft a-gley ; 3 

and: 
1 tripping. 2 darting. 3 Amiss. 



The Eighteenth Century 271 

O wad some power the giftie gie us 
To see oursels as others see us ! 

This naturalness is best seen in the Songs of Burns. 
In them all the humor, pathos, and melody of his nature 
found their highest expression. When he fell in love, 
he says, " rhyme and song were, in a manner, the spon- 
taneous language of my heart/' It is this spontaneous 
language that is the charm of such poems as Highland 
Mary, my Luve'3 like a Red, Red Rose, and Bonnie 
Doon; while his love of freedom broke out in such ringing 
songs as Scots wha hae zci Wallace Bled and A Man J s 
a Man for a' that. No one can come upon these poems 
for the first time ; like the most popular of Burns's songs, 
Auld Lang Syne, they seem to have been always familiar 
— part of the language. We read Burns not so much 
to discover something new, as to recall old friends, songs 
that sing themselves in our hearts. Let us read a short 
one together : 

O my Luve 's like a red, red rose 
That 's newly sprung in June. 

my Luve 's like the melodie 
That 's sweetly played in tune. 

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

So deep in luve am I : 
And I will luve thee still, my dear, 

Till a' the seas gang dry : 

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, 
And the rocks melt wi' the sun; 

1 will luve thee still, my dear, 
While the sands o' life shall run. 



272 



A History of English Literature 



And fare thee weel. my only Luve ! 

And fare thee weel awhile ! 
And I will come again, my Luve, 

Tho' it were ten thousand mile ! 

Xow let us think back to the elegant verses of Pope, to 
the trim gardens and the repressed emotions of the pol- 
ished poets of the eighteenth century. Clearly new 
forces are at work: English song has come to its own 
again. We must recognize, however, while we welcome 
the song, that the spirit of freedom which produced it 
brought on, also, a confusion, a lack of the lucidity which 
was the strength of the eighteenth century. 

CONCLUSION. 

The literature of the eighteenth century is not popular 
to-day, especially among boys and girls. Our life is set 

to a different tune from 
that of the city gentle- 
man of the days of 
Queen Anne and the 
Georges. We must not 
forget, however, if the 
thought of the time 
seems trivial and the 
emotion repressed, that 
a surprising number of 
men in the eighteenth 
century attained to a se- 
renity that is our de- 
spair. AYe may learn a 
burxs moxumext, edixburgh lesson from quiet pools 




The Eighteenth Century 273 

as well as from the storm-beaten sea. It was some- 
thing of this pellucid serenity, moreover, that got into the 
clear prose style of the eighteenth century and became 
the invaluable inheritance of Macaulay, Thackeray, and 
Arnold in the next century. Just as we shall not under- 
stand, or greatly enjoy, the poetry of the nineteenth cen- 
tury unless we have a knowledge of Shakespeare and 
Milton, so, lacking familiarity with Addison and Burke, 
we shall be deaf to the best part of nineteenth century 
prose. 



274 A History of English Literature 



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276 A History of English Literature 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Swift. The best short life is by Leslie 
Stephen (English Men of Letters Series). The complete 
works are published in 12 vols, by Bohn. Gulliver's Trav- 
els is published in the Temple Classics (Dent) ; also in numer- 
ous cheap school editions. A valuable contribution to Swift 
criticism is an article by A. S. Hill, in the North American 
Review for 1868. 

Addison. Life, by Courthope (English Men of Letters 
Series). See also Macaulay's Essay on Addison. A good edi- 
tion of the Spectator is that, in 8 vols., published by Scribner. 
The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers and other Spectator 
Essays are given in many cheap school editions. The Complete 
Works are published, in 6 vols., by Macmillan. 

Steele. There are good selections from Steele, including 
his best Tatler and Spectator essays, in the Athenceiim Press 
Series (Ginn). 

Pope. Life by Leslie Stephen (English Men of Letters 
Series). The Poetical Works, ed. by Ward, are published in 
the Globe Edition (Macmillan). The Rape of the Lock and 
The Epistle to Arbuthnot are published together in the 
Riverside Literature Series (Houghton Mifflin). 

Defoe. Life by Minto (English Men of Letters Series). 
Chief Earlier Works, ed. by Morley, is published by Routledge. 
The Journal of the Plague is published in the Temple 
Classics (Dent) ; a convenient, cheap edition of Robinson 
Crusoe is published in Everyman's Library, 

Fielding. Life by Dobson (English Men of Letters Series). 
Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones are published in the Bohn 
Library; Tom Jones also, in 2 vols., in Everyman's Library 
(Dutton). 

Smollett's Humphrey Clinker is published by Bohn, and 



The Eighteenth Century 277 

Sterne's Tristram Shandy by Dent (in the Temple Classics) ; 
also in Everyman's Library (Dutton). 

Johnson. The great biography of Johnson is Boswell's, 
ed. by Hill (Clarendon Press). An excellent short account 
is Macaulay's Essay on Johnson (Encyclopaedia Britannica). 
Good Selections from Johnson's works are published by the 
Clarendon Press. 

Goldsmith. Irving's Life of Goldsmith (Putnam) is good 
and very entertaining. See also Macaulay's Essay on Gold- 
smith. Goldsmith's Works are published in 5 vols, by Bohn. 
A good selection of his poems is published by the American 
Book Co.; She Stoops to Conquer in Cassell's National Li- 
brary; The Vicar of Wakefield by Longmans, and in nu- 
merous school editions. 

Burke. There are numerous cheap editions of Burke's 
Speech on Conciliation. Gray's Poetical Works are pub- 
lished in the Aldine Poets (Macmillan) ; the Elegy is included 
in practically all collections of English poetry. A good cheap 
edition of Sheridan's plays is that in the Camclot Series 
(Scott). Cowper's Poetical Works are published in the Globe 
Edition (Macmillan) ; his Letters, ed. by Benham, are published 
by Macmillan; The Task is published in the Temple Classics 
(Dent) ; and a very good selection of his verse is given in 
the Golden Treasury Series (Macmillan). The most useful 
life is by Goldwin Smith (English Men of Letters Series). 

Burns. Life by Shairp (English Men of Letters Series). 
See also Carlyle's Essay on Burns (numerous cheap editions), 
and Stevenson's Some Aspects of Robert Bums in Familiar 
Studies of Men and Books (Scribner). The Complete Works 
and Letters are published in the Globe Edition (Macmillan). 
There are numerous cheap volumes of selected poems. 

Of the minor writers of the eighteenth century Ward's 
English Poets, 4 vols. (Macmillan), and Craik's English Prose, 
5 vols. (Macmillan), give good examples. Century Readings 
(Century) gives a good selection of both prose and verse in one 
volume. 



278 A History of English Literature 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

Swift's Battle of the Books and Gulliver's Travels, 
Addison's Campaign and Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, 
Pope's Universal Prayer, Dying Christian to his Soul, 
Rape of the Lock, and Epistle to Arbuthnot, and Defoe's 
Robinson Crusoe form a representative selection of early 
18th century literature. The second half of the century is 
fairly well covered by Fielding's Tom Jones, Smollett's 
Humphrey Clinker, Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Johnson's 
Letter to Chesterfield, Vanity of Human Wishes, and 
Life of Pope, Goldsmith's Deserted Village, Vicar of Wake- 
field, and She Stoops to Conquer, Burke's Speech on Con- 
ciliation, Sheridan's Rivals, Gray's Elegy, Cowper's Task 
and a few selected poems, and Burns's Cotter's Saturday 
Night, Tam o' Shanter, and selections from the shorter poems 
and songs. Even for a beginning, however, one should read 
also selections from Boswell's Life of Johnson and such 
further selections, especially from Prior, Gay, Young, Thom- 
son, Chatterton, Gibbon, and Blake, as are included in the Cen- 
tury Readings. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. Lecky's History of Eng- 
land in the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. (Appleton), is the au- 
thority. Good shorter histories are Morris' The Age of Queen 
Anne and The Early Hanoverians (Epochs of Modern His- 
tory). Thackeray's Four Georges and English Humourists, 
though they are at times more sentimental than just, give very 
interesting pictures of the century. See also Gosse, Eighteenth 
Century Literature (Macmillan) arid Phelps, The Beginnings 
of the English Romantic Movement (Ginn). For other works 
dealing with the literary history see special chapters in books 
given on p. 433. 

POETRY AND FICTION. A great many novels help us 
to understand the eighteenth century. Besides those actually 
written at the time, such as Tom Jones and The Vicar of Wake- 
field, we have, among the best, Scott's Rob Roy, The Heart 



The Eighteenth Century 279 

of Midlothian, Waverley, Guy Mannering, and Redgauntlet, 
Thackeray's Henry Esmond and The Virginians, Dickens's 
Barnaby Radge, Reade's Peg Woffington, Lever's Treasure 
Trove, and Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent. Southey's Blenheim 
and Campbell's Lochiel are poems connected with familiar 
eighteenth century events. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE AGE OF ROMANTICISM 

(1790-1835). 

" Romanticism " is the word now generally used to 
describe the period which coincides roughly with the 
early nineteenth century. Like other names which at- 
tempt to cover a time of great diversity, it is not entirely 
satisfactory. To understand Scott, Wordsworth, and 
their contemporaries, therefore, it is necessary to realize 
that, as a special name applied to a particular age, Ro- 
manticism may and does include a good deal that is not 
romantic. 

Romantic, in literature, means merely that in a given 
piece of writing imagination is the most noticeable trait; 
as realistic implies a predominating sense of fact and 
classic an outstanding sense of form. 1 Now it is obvious 
that any great piece of writing must have a goodly por- 
tion of each of these three qualities, that in the works 
of Scott, Wordsworth, and Keats there is not only im- 
agination, but sufficient sense of fact and sense of form; 
in short, that no age is wholly romantic, realistic, or 
classic. The time of Scott, however, like the Middle 
Age of Romance and like the Age of Elizabeth, was a 
period when sense of fact and sense of form w r ere sub- 
ordinated to imagination. In extreme cases of this we 

1 See a clear emphasis of this distinction in The Essentials of 
Poetry, by W. A. Neilson, Houghton Mifflin Company. 

280 



The Age of Romanticism 281 

get what has been called " Romanticism run mad," as in 
Blake's lines — 

And if the babe is born a boy, 
He 's given to a woman old, 
Y\ no nails him down upon a rock, 
Catches his shrieks in cups of gold. 

But in the better instances, when the writer has sufficient 
regard for fact and form, we get some of the best poetry 
in our language, such as Keats's St. Agnes' Eve, or, to 
quote from Blake at his best, — 

Tiger, tiger, burning bright 
In the forests of the night, 
What immortal hand or eye 
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

In calling the age one of imagination and poetry, however, 
as the preceding century was one of reason and prose, 
we must not lose sight of the fact that such poems as 
Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers are less 
romantic than Pope's Eloisa to Abelard or that Keats 
had as keen a sense of form as Dryden and Pope. 

This characteristic of superabundant imagination was 
in most instances the result of a revival of interest in the 
story, song, and ballad of the past. It is the most out- 
standing feature of the Age of Romanticism and has 
given the period its name. It often gave rise, especially 
in the poets, to a tendency to introspection and to what 
Keats called " a horrid morbidity." Imagination often 
got the better of reason. There are, however, many 
other striking features, some of them not at all romantic, 
so that the word Romanticism, as applied to the fifty 



282 A History of English Literature 

years between the death of Johnson and the death of 
Scott, has come to mean a special thing. The movement 
has been variously defined — as " a Revival of the Mid- 
dle Ages/' "the Age of Revolution/'' — but these defi- 
nitions emphasize only particular features. It will be 
best, at present, not to attempt a comprehensive defini- 
tion, but rather to note the most striking characteristics. 
1 . Revival of interest in the Age of Romance. This is 
the most noticeable feature of the time. It does not ap- 
pear directly in all the writers ; in fact, Shelley positively 
hated what he considered the superstitious past; but the 
result to which it contributed, lively imagination, love 
of the picturesque, freedom from narrow restraint, is 
everywhere noticeable. The first signs of this new in- 
terest appear, like the return to nature, back in the days 
of Johnson. Bishop Percy, in collecting old ballads, 
and Macpherson, in forging in his Ossian what he pre- 
tended was a translation from old Celtic literature, were 
among the pioneers; and though the one received the 
ridicule and the other the contempt of Dr. Johnson, by 
the last quarter of the century the revival of romance 
was beginning to be something like universal. It ap- 
pears most obviously in the novels of Mrs. Radcliffe, with 
their extravagant titles, such as The Mysteries of Udolfo. 
Scott's translation of Burger's Lenore, a most romantic 
poem, appeared in 1796 and Coleridge's Ancient Mar- 
iner 1 in 1798. By then the victory over the so-called 
classicism of Pope and Johnson was won. 

1 Neither a revival nor an imitation of the Middle Age poetry, 
the Ancient Mariner abounds in the mysterious and supernatural 
features which Middle Age poets used; in addition, it is written in 
"ballad stanza." 



The Age of Romanticism 283 

The other main features of the new age have already 
been noticed in the beginning of the Romantic Move- 
ment under Gray, Cowper, and Burns. By the turn of 
the century, however, poetry reached a development 
which makes Gray and Cowper seem almost wholly class- 
ical. In this development, moreover, it took on features 
not obvious in the work of the earlier men. 

2. The Return to Nature. Influenced by the interest 
in romance, men came more and more to seek out strange 
and wild scenery. The beauty of rural England still 
attracted them, but now we find Coleridge fascinated by 
mysterious forests ; Wordsworth by mountain scenes — 

Huge and living forms, that do not live 
Like living men ; 

Shelley by the shapes of sea and sky; Byron by the 
ocean, 

Dread, fathomless, alone ; 

and Keats by " an elfin storm from faeryland." With 
Wordsworth, moreover, began an entirely new feeling 
towards nature: a setting for the poetry of Cowper and 
Burns, nature became with Wordsworth, a personality, a 
prophet. 

3. Interest in Humanity. The French Revolution, 
coming in the last decade of the eighteenth century, 
fanned the human sympathy of poets into an ardent 
flame. Some of the poets — notably Scott and Keats 
— were unaffected by the great effort to establish the 
rights of man, but those who caught the message were 
eager champions of the new Democracy. Wordsworth 
cried, 



284 A History of English Literature 

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 
But to be young was very heaven ! — 

Byron wrote, " The king-times are fast finishing ! There 
will be blood shed like water, and tears like mist, but 
the peoples will conquer in the end;" — Coleridge 
planned an ideal community, to be founded in America; 
— and Shelley dreamed of a Utopian society, free from 
bigotry and tyranny. But there was more in the move- 
ment than the visions of poets and philosophers. There 
was a Europe-wide awakening, the practical result of 
which in England was the Reform Bill of 1832, while 
the whole nineteenth century, socially, politically, reli- 
giously, was quickened anew by the Revolution. 

4. Verse-Form. It should be noted, too, that the 
escape from the tyranny of the heroic couplet was com- 
plete. In a singularly poetic age, meters of nearly every 
description were handled with a skill that has rarely 
been surpassed. And if some writers — Shelley and 
Byron, for instance — were too careless at times, Keats 
at least rivaled Pope in the careful construction of his 
lines. Little can distinguish the two periods better — 
the day of Pope and the day of Keats — than a com- 
parison of their handling of the heroic couplet. Pope's 
neatly balanced, " closed " couplet we remember : 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 
Man never is, but always to be, blest. 

Now compare Keats's Endymion: 

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: 
Its loveliness increases ; it will never 



The Age of Romanticism 285 

Pass into nothingness ; but still will keep 

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. 

There is rarely any suspicion that Pope might have writ- 
ten good lyrical verse or good blank verse; but in the 
mere form of these lines from Endymion there is excel- 
lent promise of such verse as Keats wrote in the Ode to 
a Nightingale and in Hyperion. 

It is not merely that Keats was the better poet — in 
many ways he was not ; it is rather that the Romanticists, 
whether in interest or verse-form, were never controlled 
by one narrow convention. Perhaps we cannot find a 
better definition of the age than Victor Hugo's — " Lib- 
eralism in Literature." 

WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832). 

Scott loved the song and story of the past; he loved 
the great out-of-doors; his heart entered into whatever 
he wrote ; and he left the world a body of prose and poe- 
try which has justly earned for him the name of " The 
Great Romancer." One has only to turn to the stirring 
chase in The Lady of the Lake, to the storming of Front- 
de-Bceuf's castle in Ivanhoe, or to the swinging, auda- 
cious measure of The Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee to 
realize that here the author is clear of formal restrictions, 
that life, not literary convention, was the inspiration of 
this man. 

Life. Scott was born at Edinburgh on August 15, 
1 77 1. His childhood is significant. Robust though he 
was, a severe illness when he was a baby left him lame 
for life, and it w^as on account of this illness that he was 



286 A History of English Literature 

sent to his grandfather's place at Sandy-Knowe. Here, 
not far from " Tweed's fair flood," he rode a Shetland 
pony over the moors; here he gained his first interest 
in Border story and song ; and here again, when he was a 
young man, deputy-sheriff of Selkirkshire, he rode about 
the country, gathering fragments of old ballads from 
the lips of peasants and cherishing his love of nature and 
of the magic past. 

Bright but erratic at school — " an incorrigibly idle 
imp," he says of himself, who " glanced like a meteor 
from one end of the class to the other," Scott passed 
on through the regular routine at Edinburgh High 
School and Edinburgh University, till in 1792 he was 
admitted to the bar. For a time he worked at the law 
and, indeed, became in 1806 a clerk of session; but the 
interest of his boyhood, nature and tales of chivalry, 
remained his chief interest, and what time could be 
snatched from his profession was spent in wide and 
various reading. In fact, when he moved to Lasswade 
soon after his marriage, in 1797, he was feeling his way 
back from what he called a " dry and barren wilderness 
of forms and conveyances " to the open country of his 
boyhood. 

The romantic nature which early revealed itself in the 
" inexhaustible tales " of Scott's boyhood first received lit- 
erary expression in 1796, when he translated Burger's 
ballad, Lenore. In 1802 he brought out a great collec- 
tion of songs and ballads, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish 
Border. From then on his pen was rarely idle ; no writer 
of his time, unless perhaps Byron, had such a flow of 
language. The Lay of the Last Minstrel, in 1805, 




Copyright photo. Emery Walker, London, E. C. 
SIR WALTER SCOTT 
From a painting by Sir Edwin Landseer 



The Age of Romanticism 289 

brought great popularity; and'Afarmion (1808) and The 
Lady of the Lake (1810) made him the best-known 
writer in the United Kingdom. He is said, indeed, by 
the interest aroused in the Trossachs and " lone Glen- 
artney's hazel shade," to have affected materially the 
revenue from the post-horse duty. 

After his success with The Lady of the Lake Scott 
continued for some years to pour forth stirring narra- 
tive poems, such as Rokeby (1812) and The Lord of 
the Isles (1815), but Byron's greater successes in the 
same field attracted popular attention; whereat Scott, 
with his head still full of " inexhaustible tales," turned his 
hand to prose fiction and not only eclipsed his former 
fame, but nearly wrote poetry out of fashion; at least, 
since the Wavertey novels appeared, verse has been un- 
able to contend successfully with prose for the favor of 
the reading public. Scott had already had much ex- 
perience in writing prose when he began his career as a 
novelist. His Dryden (1808) and Swift (1814) still 
retain their value as careful and discerning biography, 
and their author had found time as well for many short 
articles contributed to magazines, especially to the Tory 
Quarterly Review. In 18 14, while looking one day for 
some fishing-tackle, he came upon an old, unfinished man- 
uscript. This he completed in five weeks, and Waverley 
was the result. It gained immediate success and was 
quickly followed by the great number of novels which 
have found their way into the homes and hearts of Eng- 
glish-speaking peoples all over the world. These books 
were at first chiefly Scottish — such as Rob Roy (1818) 
and The Heart of Midlothian (1818), — but later the 



290 A History of English Literature 



Scott's writings brought him money 



English Ivanhoe (1820) and Kenilworth (1821), the 
French Quentin Durward (1823), and The Talisman 
(1825), much of it laid in the Holy Land, showed that 
Scott was not dependent on his native heath for his lore. 
Anything that promised high adventure and devotion was 
fit subject for his ready pen. 

as well as fame ; 
he liked to live on a 
large scale; and he 
moved in 1804 to Ashe- 
stiel on the Tweed, 
and in 18 12, with in- 
creasing prosperity, to 
Abbots ford, five miles 
down the river, where 
he built himself a great 
and now famous house. 
Here he was known as the hospitable " Laird of Ab- 
botsford," a pattern of kind master and generous friend, 
an incarnation of the great-hearted gentlemen who live 
in the pages of his books; and here, after a life of bril- 
liant literary activity, unprecedented success, and sad 
financial failure, he died on September 21, 1832. 

The last chapter of Scott's life is important. Since 
it reveals particularly what manner of man he was, we 
shall thereby be better able to understand the large- 
heartedness of his writings. In 1826, while he was 
working on Woodstock, Constable, his publisher, and the 
Ballantynes, his printers, failed completely. Though 
Scott was only a " silent partner,'' he at once gener- 
ously assumed the whole debt, £130,000. " Give me my 




ABBOTSFORD 



The Age of Romanticism 291 

popularity/' he said, " and all my present difficulties shall 
be a joke in four years." He wrote with prodigious 
vigor; "I remember/' he says, "writing upwards of 
120 folio pages with no interval for either food or rest; " 
and now he turned with the same vigor to his work. But 
the task was too great. His Life of Napoleon (1827) 
had a phenomenal success, and altogether before his death 
he wrote off about £40,000 of the debt. Kind friends 
deceived him at the last into thinking that he had ac- 
complished the whole task; and, indeed, the sale of his 
works, a few years later, did pay off the entire sum. 

The important thing to note, however, is not just 
how much Scott accomplished, but the fact that he did all 
that he could ; and the further fact that not only f ri'ends, 
but servants, and even creditors stood by him in the hour 
of his trial. He had perhaps lived extravagantly; Ab- 
botsford has been called his " private [Moscow expedi- 
tion; " but when the need came, he was able to renounce 
the things he had so dearly loved for what he held in 
greater esteem, his honor. Such an act, however, was 
not remarkable in Scott, when we consider his ideals, 
manifest in his books. As in his writings it is the heart 
that counts, so in his life he instinctively set honor, 
love, courtesy, above all else. He wrote true romance; 
and, as he had always lived true romance, he stepped 
easily, by natural right as it were, into a heroic and ro- 
mantic endeavor. " The gentleman," said Lockhart, his 
son-in-law and biographer, — " the gentleman survived the 
genius." Yet in a sense the two were the same thing in 
Scott ; and to understand the gentleman is to understand 
the genius. 



292 A History of English Literature 

Works. Scott's character pervaded his writings. 
Both his best verse and his best prose reveal his love of 
chivalry and out-of-doors. Every boy knows The Lady 
of the Lake, with its " fair dames and crested chiefs," 
its " clanging hoof and horn," its mustering of the clan, 
its vivid combat between James and Roderick, when 
" in dubious strife they darkly closed," and its fine ro- 
mantic ending when Snowdon's knight binds the lovers 
with his chain of gold. To know and understand these 
scenes and the fresh, unhampered poetry in which they 
are expressed is to understand, beyond the need of an- 
alysis, the essence of Scott's Romanticism. Read again 
the passage beginning 

The stag at eve had drunk his fill, 

or the melodious song, 

Soldier, rest ! thy warfare o'er ; 

and the secret of Scott's " magic wand " reveals itself. 
This is true not only of The Lady of the Lake, but of 
Marmion, of Scott's other poems, and, in spirit, of his 
novels. It is the " wandering witch-note," the " seraph 
bold, with touch of fire," the " brush of Fairy's frolic 
wing," — the magic of the " Harp of the North." 

But there is more in Scott's Romanticism than the 
" wandering witch-note;" there is something very sub- 
stantial, very solid about it, especially in his novels. In- 
stead of vainglorious knights and impossible ladies, he 
pictures for us individuals, as real and vivid as per- 
sons whom we know. The point is well illustrated by the 
answer of a schoolboy when he was asked why Captain 



The Age of Romanticism 293 

Silver in Stevenson's Treasure Island seemed so real, in 
contrast to the dagger-bristling heroes of forgottenbooks. 
He replied aptly enough that Captain Silver does real 
things; and when a scornful friend remarked, " You 
never do the things Silver does," the first boy, sticking 
to his point, replied, " No, but if you were Captain Silver 




ELLEN S ISLE, LOCH KATRINE 



you would." The same thing is true of Scott's char- 
acters, at least of the men: they live in an atmosphere 
unfamiliar to us; they figure a sort of gigantic and fabu- 
lous heroism ; but through it all they move like human be- 
ings; — they do what you or I would do if we were 
Front-de-Boeuf or King Richard or Isaac the Jew. As 
Mr. Chesterton has well put it, true romance lies not in 
a "multiplicity of drawn swords," but in actual living; 
it goes deeper than mere incidents and accidents; it is 
" a state of the soul." It was Scott's sense of fact, 
coupled with his lively imagination, which made him able 
to conjure up for us as no one else has done a life which 



294 -^ History oi English Literature 



is that in which the family of Colonel Man- 
e waiting for the carriage which may or may 
e by night to bring an unknown man into a 

s s ession. Yet almost the whole of that thrill- 
: :;s:s:> : : :, ri ii: v.'. :u= :::: ersi::::: a: : u: ::•: i. 
between f rivol us old lawyer and a fash- 
irL We can say nothing about what makes 
ies, e xcept that the wind bloweth where it list- 
vu here the ".vini ~h ""5 fvr::iv. ~ 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH :-->-:50. 



cS.i "v:ie:: in 



: ::i:ie:iei 
living ~:r 



st years Wordsworth cons 



A 



and the seriousness with which he 

:; interpret nature m: hums.:: life 
"prophetic sir-:::- A r:e-t sirr.i: 
:~tei soirit. Vih::t. he reminis us : 



.-.Z ..- 



: :::::: 5:: Walter S : : :: ::. ": -i -.;.'.' ':;■• I-. K.. i;:e5:er- 



I 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 
After a sketch from life by Wyon, made April 21, 1847 



The Age of Romanticism 297 

ness of his ideals and in the dignity of his poetry of the 
great prophet of Puritanism. 

Such " high seriousness " naturally sets a poet apart 
from the workaday world. We are moving about in a 
realm -of fact; he is "moving about in worlds not real- 
ized." And the consequence is, with great loss to us, 
that we do not easily understand him. Our gross ears 
require purging, as it were, before we can hear his celes- 
tial harmonies. It is true that the best of Wordsworth's 
poetry can be put in a small volume and that what is ex- 
cellent is obscured by a great deal that is inferior; but 
even this excellent little the great mass of readers do not 
understand without a sort of initiation, a preparation 
for communion with nature. 

He is retired as noontide dew, 
Or fountain in a noonday grove : 
And you must love him, ere to you 
He will seem worthy of your love. 

If the reader of Wordsworth has never lifted up his eyes 
unto the hills, he will not be likely to appreciate the 
" impulses of deeper birth " of which the poet sings. 

Life. Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in the 
village of Cockermouth, in the northwest corner of Eng- 
land. Educated at Hawkshead, a tiny village among the 
neighboring mountains, he grew up amid wild and mag- 
nificent scenery. 

Though a capable student, he was a dreamy boy, and 
much of his education as well as his companionship came 
from the open hillsides where he roamed. To him moun- 
tain and star took on a sort of animation — though not 
that of human beings, but a supernatural life: they 



298 A History of English Literature 



and 



Moved slowly through the mind 
By day, and were a trouble to my dreams ; 

the earth 
And common face of nature spake to him 
Rememberable things. 

So great indeed was Wordsworth's absorption in the 
spirit of the universe that he passed through Cambridge 




STRIDING EDGE, HELVELLYN 



University in a sort of haze and, on visiting France in 
1 79 1, took at first no interest in the Revolution. 

It was through the Revolution, however, that Words- 
worth's eyes were finally opened. He says that he first 
caught the full import of the great movement when, at 
Orleans, he saw a " hunger-bitten girl " leading a heifer. 
Immediately his ardor for the Republican cause knew 
no bounds, and friends were only just able to restrain 



The Age of Romanticism 299 

him from joining the ranks in France. On his return 
to England, moreover, everything seemed changed : he 
could no longer dwell apart with his beloved nature; 
the suffering of humanity called him to London. What 
made the situation worse, the experiment in France, as 
the years passed, seemed to be proving a failure ; and the 
beautiful philosophy of the Revolutionists led straight 
into atheism. Wordsworth, to whom immortality was 

A presence which is not to be put by, 

was thrown into confusion and despair. Gradually, how- 
ever, he saw his way through the problem; he began in- 
creasingly to realize that the whole question of man and 
nature was one ; he was filled by 

a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 
A motion and a spirit, that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts, 
And rolls through all things. 

These lines w^ere written in 1798, during a visit to Tin- 
tern Abbey. The following year he returned to his well- 
loved Lake District; and there, first at Grasmere, after 
18 1 3 at Rydal Mount, he spent the rest of his days, 
interpreting the simple life about him, inspiring men to 
simple faith " in common things that round us lie/ 5 
teaching them of that 

primal sympathy 
Which having been must ever be. 



300 A History of English Literature 

Before this conversion, as it may be called, Words- 
worth had already written a good deal of poetry. For 
some years he had been a close friend of Coleridge, and 




DOVE COTTAGE, GRASMERE 

together in 1798 they published their Lyrical Ballads. 
This volume contained some of Wordsworth's best early 
verses, as well as Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. 

Wordsworth's best work, however, was written during 
the sixteen years after 1798, when he was full of the mes- 
sage inspired by his vision. To these years belong his 
best lyrics and sonnets, Michael, Resolution and Inde- 
pendence, the Ode to Duty, the Ode on Intimations of 
Immortality, Laodamia, and Dion. Besides these were 
two long poems, The Prelude (1805) and The Excur- 
sion (1814), intended as parts of a longer work, The Re- 
cluse, which he never finished. This poem was to be a 
kind of spiritual autobiography, and from the parts that 
were written we get our chief knowledge of the develop- 
ment of Wordsworth's thought. 

Wordsworth was never rich, but two small legacies, 



The Age of Romanticism 301 

together with his salary as distributer of stamps for 
Westmoreland, and later a pension from the civil list, 
enabled him to give his whole life to poetry. He con- 
tinued to write much, and in 1843 succeeded Southey as 
poet-laureate. Little of his later work, however, except 
the Duddon Sonnets (1820) and a few scattered poems, 
is of his best. In his last years, nevertheless, he became 
a venerable figure among literary men — " a right good 
old steel-gray figure, with rustic simplicity and dignity 
about him." At the age of eighty he died on April 23, 
1850, the anniversary of Shakespeare's death. 

Works. Before discussing the poetry of Words- 
worth, it is well to remind ourselves of his theory of 
poetry, as set forth in the preface to his Lyrical Ballads. 
He held that any subject taken from life was a fit subject 
for poetry, and that the language should strive to follow, 
not literary tradition, but " the language of men." That 
Wordsworth did not adhere strictly to this theory is evi- 
dent enough; on the other hand, he adhered to it much 
too strictly, with the result that absurd and trivial poems 
abound in his works. This quest, however, for " the 
common things that round us lie " led him to under- 
stand, more deeply even than Burns, the life of simple 
country folk; and the attempt to interpret such life 
in simple, " real " language often resulted in his best 
work. 

As might be expected, Wordsworth's longer poems 
are often prosaic and tedious. But though Jeffrey was 
in the main right when he said of The Excursion, " This 
will never do," there are passages in it, as in The Pre- 
lude, which show well the power of the poet's descrip- 



302 A History of English Literature 

tive verse. Take, for example, the picture of 
Solitary's " mountain abode at Blea Tarn : 

Urn-like it was in shape, deep as an urn; 
With rocks encompassed, save that to the south 
Was one small opening, where a heath-clad ridge 
Supplied a boundary less abrupt and close ; 
A quiet treeless nook, with two green fields, 
A liquid pool that glittered in the sun, 
And one bare dwelling; one abode, no more! 



The 



The small birds find in spring no thicket there 
To shroud them; only from the neighboring vales 
The cuckoo, straggling up to the hill tops, 
Shouteth faint tidings of some gladder place. 

It is in the shorter poems, however, that Words- 
worth is at his best. Whether in little lyrics that 







/7 -f\ 





A FIELD OF DAFFODILS NEAR RYDAL MOUNT 



The Age of Romanticism 303 

remind one of the wild flowers the poet knew so well, 
or in more ambitious poems, like the Ode to Duty, there 
are everywhere lines that " startle and waylay." More 
than this, there is the pervasive presence of uplifting and 
chastening thoughts. The Solitary Reaper, singing 

As if her song could have no ending, 

fills Wordsworth with a kind of noble rapture, till he 
concludes : 

The music in my heart I bore 

Long after it was heard no more ; — 

watching the skylark in its " privacy of glorious light," 
he cries : 

Type of the wise who soar, but never roam ; 

True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home ! — 

hearing the " two-fold shout " of the cuckoo, he writes: 

O blessed bird ! the earth we pace 
Again appears to be 
An unsubstantial, faery place ; 
That is fit home for Thee ! — 

standing on Westminster Bridge in the early morning, 
he says: 

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep ! 
The river glideth at his own sweet will : 
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep ; 
And all that mighty heart is lying still ! 

It is in such verses as these, in ennobling thoughts " on 



304 A History of English Literature 

man, on nature, and on human life," that we see the 
true Wordsworth. His great Ode on Intimations of 
Immortality will repay special study, for in it he writes 
not only with the simple power of his best verse, but 
he reveals, in short compass, the very center of his vis- 
ion. 

The poet begins with an apparent regret that " the 
earth and every common sight " no longer seem " ap- 
parelled in celestial light " and puts himself the question: 

Whither is fled the visionary gleam? 
He then proceeds to explain that 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, 
that we come trailing clouds of glory 

From God, who is our home; 

but that as we grow older " shades of the prison-house " 
of earth shut us in, till with the man " the vision splen- 
did " fades into the light of common day. Then comes 
the great answer, the answer of Wordsworth's own life, 
that, in spite of dead custom, 

Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life, 

there may persist, even in the man, " shadowy recol- 
lections," " obstinate questionings," "high instincts;" 
while now we are better able than the child to under- 
stand 

the primal sympathy 
Which having been must ever be; 

The innocent brightness of a new-born Day 
Is lovely yet. 



The Age of Romanticism 



305 



More than that: the sight is not merely beautiful, but 
earnest — 

The clouds that gather round the setting sun 
Do take a sober colouring from an eye 
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality. 

Thanks to the human heart by which we live, 

the poet concludes, 

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, 
To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834). 

Coleridge, together 
with Southey and 
Wordsworth, belonged 
to the group of poets 
who made up the so- 
called "Lake School." 
But it is an unsatisfac- 
tory term, for, though 
these poets and others 
of less note were vague- 
ly associated in the 
minds of hostile critics, 
there was no common 
doctrine or principle of 
the "Lake School;" 
and Coleridge's inti- 
mate connection with 
Wordsworth came be- , AMTT17T TAVTnp rnTrpTlirF 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERTDGE 




306 A History of English Literature 



fore the residence of the former at Keswick and the latter 
at Grasmere. 

Unlike Wordsworth, simple and serene, Coleridge was 
all his life a most " perturbed spirit." His natural dis- 
position to dreaming he aided 
by the use of opium; and the 
habit eventually broke down his 
energy. A great thinker, how- 
ever, he contributed much to 
the thought of his time; and 
in his old age, when with the 
help of friends he managed to 
control the opium habit, he 
emerged into the " sage of 
Highgate " — "an archangel 
slightly damaged/' as Lamb put 
it, but still able to stimulate the 
thinking men of his day. His 
life presents at times a sorry 
picture of vagueness and irreso- 
lution, but it reveals, too, a 
power of vision that was sec- 
ond only to DeQuincey's and a 
sheer weight of intellect that 
was second to none. 

Life. Coleridge, the young- 
est of thirteen children, was born October 21, 1772, at Ot- 
tery St. Mary's, in Devonshire. His father was a poor 
clergyman, and the boy was sent at the age of ten to a 
charity school, Christ Hospital, in London. Already a 
" queer " small boy — a character before he was eight, he 




CHRIST HOSPITAL 



The Age of Romanticism 307 

says of himself — Coleridge impressed his schoolfellow 
Lamb as a " Logician, Metaphysician, Bard," the " in- 
spired charity boy." A brilliant scholar, Coleridge won an 
" Exhibition Scholarship " at Jesus College, Cambridge, 
and entered the University in 1791. After an irregular 
attendance, he left Cambridge in 1794 and joined a 
group of young men, among them Southey, with the 
purpose of embarking for America and there founding 
an ideal community. Coleridge and Southey lectured 
and wrote to procure funds, but disagreements arose, 
and the party never started. For one reason, Southey 
married and soon began to take a new view of the 
scheme. A year later Coleridge himself married Sarah 
Fricker, the sister of Southey's wife. It was now 
(1796) that The Watchman, a periodical which he is- 
sued for ten weeks, brought him before the reading pub- 
lic as a Unitarian, a revolutionist in religion as well 
as in politics. Gifted with almost miraculous powers of 
speech, he went about the country preaching as a " hire- 
less volunteer " and was a veritable magnet to the young 
men who heard him. 

Much the most important happening in these early 
years was the meeting with Wordsworth, in 1797, and 
the joint composition of the Lyrical Ballads (1798). 
The Ancient Mariner, Coleridge's contribution, was 
started by the two friends to pay the expenses of a walk- 
ing tour in Devon, but the poem grew till practically 
all of it was Coleridge's; and, though it was not popular 
at first, it is now recognized as one of the greatest works 
of the age. Between 1797 an d 1802, in fact, Coleridge 
was at the height of his powers. He wrote Osorio, a 



308 A History of English Literature 

play produced many years later as Remorse; Christabel 
(never finished), the Ode to France, Frost at Midnight, 
Fears in Solitude, the Hymn to Sunrise, and, after an 
opium dream, the magnificent fragment Kubla Khan. 
In addition he translated Schiller's trilogy, Wallenstein, 
and wrote political articles for The Morning Post and 
The Courier. 

By the time he was thirty, however, Coleridge suc- 
cumbed to indolence. Long before he began to take 
opium, he recognized his predisposition to sloth — 

Sloth-jaundiced all ! and from my graspless hand 1 
Drop Friendship's precious pearls, like hour-glass sand. 

In 1800 he moved to Keswick, where his family and 
Southey's attempted to share one house, but within two 
years Coleridge, now taking enormous doses of lauda- 
num, began to shun the Keswick household, and after 
1812 he never lived with his family. He talked much 
of a great work on Christianity, but at this time he 
wrote practically nothing. 

It was in 181 6, when he began to live with Dr. Gill- 
man, in Highgate, that Coleridge " emerged " as the 
" dusky sublime character ?? later visited by the young 
Carlyle. Gillman restricted the doses of opium, and 
Coleridge half -regained his old powers. He wrote lit- 
tle, but his Biographia Literaria (1817), a rambling his- 
tory of his thought, his Lay Sermons (1817), and his 
Aids to Reflection (1825) were books of great value to 
the young men who gathered round him at Highgate. 
It was chiefly as a talker that he was now known. As 
1 Written in 1794. 



The Age of Romanticism 309 

a lecturer he had already a great reputation; and his 
lectures on Shakespeare, given in 18 12, are among the 
chief contributions to the criticism of the great dram- 
atist. His philosophy of life, however, — so priceless to 
his disciples, — he never formulated into a coherent 
scheme. The reason why may be well understood from 
Carlyle's description of his conversation: "He began 
anywhere; you put some question to him, made some 
suggestive observation; instead of answering this, or de- 
cidedly setting out towards an answer of it, he would 
accumulate formidable apparatus, logical swim-bladders, 
transcendental life-preservers, and other precautionary 
and vehiculatory gear for setting out ; perhaps did at last 
get under way — but was swiftly solicited, turned aside 
by the flame of some radiant new game on this hand or 
on that into new courses, and ever into new." It must 
have been necessary to hear him, to see the spirit in his 
eyes, in order to appreciate what the young men saw in 
him — "a kind of Magus, girt in mystery and enigma." 
When he died on July 25, 1834, old as well as young 
felt that they had lost a " great spirit." 

Works. In his poetry Coleridge was very much of 
a Romanticist. On account of his share in the Lyrical 
Ballads he was counted an innovator; and though he 
later made it plain that he did not agree entirely with 
Wordsworth's theories, he broke completely with the 
theory and practice of Pope: indeed, it was he who re- 
called men to the fact that, in English verse, stress is 
more important than quantity, that to count syllables 
is altogether wrong. In his own practice, moreover, he 
carried out his theory; and with an exquisite ear for 



310 A History of English Literature 

meter, he wrote in the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan 
lines which prove his point beyond a doubt. Perhaps 
no other man of his day is so successfully Romantic in 
verse-form. 

Coleridge was no less true to his time in other ways. 
An ardent supporter of the French Revolution, he felt 
the call of brotherhood so strongly that he wrote in his 
Lines to a Young Ass 1 

I hail thee Brother — spite of the fool's scorn! 
And fain would take thee with me. in the Dell 
Of Peace and mild Equality to dwell. 

But, like Wordsworth, Coleridge later recanted when he 
saw the champions in France 

Mix with kings in the low lust of sway, 
Yell in the hunt, and share the murderous prey. 

Again, Coleridge was a lover of nature, and though it 
never meant to him what it meant to his friend Words- 
worth, almost any poem of his reveals an intimacy un- 
known to writers of the preceding age; he delights in 
such images as 

Brown skeletons of leaves that lag 
My forest-brook along ; 
Y\ nen the ivy-tod is heavy with snow. 
And the owlet whoops to the wolf below. 
That eats the she-wolf's young. 

The most outstanding feature, however, is Coleridge's 
use of the mysterious and enchanted past. In his poetry 

1 It was this poem that Byron satirized in the line — 
" While Coleridge soars to elegize an ass." 



The Age of Romanticism 311 

the magic of the Middle Ages lives again; supernatural 
forces hover in the air; not Kubla Khan, the reader 
feels, but Coleridge, " girt in mystery and enigma," 

on honey-dew hath fed 
And drunk the milk of Paradise. 

He steps at will into fairy realms; and we must go 
with him if we would understand the specter-ship and 
the seraph-band in The Ancient Mariner, or the Lady 
Geraldine in Christabel, or the pleasure-dome in Kubla 
Khan. 

In his prose Coleridge is Romantic enough, in that 
he is imaginative rather than literal, but what strikes 
the reader most is the precision of the language and the 
remarkable procession of ideas. It was he who said 
that in composition " each sentence should beget the 
next/' and little prose is more logically consecutive than 
his. If his best poetry does not fill many pages, it 
should be remembered that he was not only a poet, but 
a great interpretative critic of literature. 

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834). 

The little charity boy who looked with wonder on the 
precocious Coleridge, was throughout his life an in- 
timate friend of the great poet. The two men were 
apparently very unlike, for Coleridge was a dreamer and 
philosopher, Lamb a gentle humorist. The familiar 
Lamb of Elia fame, however, belongs to the later years 
of the humorist's life. We should not forget that in his 
early manhood Lamb, like Coleridge, was a Romantic 
poet; and to understand fully Lamb's humor, we should 



312 A History of English Literature 



realize that it is not mere wit, but contains, in the 
background, pathos and sympathy. 

Life. Lamb was born February 10, 1775, in Crown 
Office Row, London, went to Christ Hospital School in 
London, and spent practically all of his life in the city 
Very poor, he was forced to go to work at fourteen. 

;; For a while he was in 
the South Sea House, 
but in 1792 he became 
a clerk in the account- 
ant's office of the East 
India House. In this 
office he remained for 
thirty-three years, and 
though he rose towards 
the end to a position of 
moderate comfort, he 
was never rich. 

After leaving school, 
Lamb lived with his pa- 
rents and his sister 
Mary, but in 1796 his 
sister, in a fit of insan- 
ity, killed her mother. 
His father died three years later, and thereafter Lamb 
lived with his sister and cared tenderly for her. At in- 
tervals her malady recurred, but together the two faced 
their problem and made the best of a tragedy that might 
have wrecked either alone. Fortunately Lamb had an 
affectionate nature, which won him many friends, great 
and small; and these friendships brought out what was 




CHARLES LAMB 
From the original engraving by Henry 
Meyer (after his own painting) in the 
collection of Ernest Dressel North, Esq. 



The Age of Romanticism 313 

best in him — gentleness, kindliness, and unfailing humor. 

Lamb's first published work was four sonnets included 
with Coleridge's Poems of 1796, and during the years 
immediately following he wrote practically all of his 
few poems. In the first decade of the new century he 
wrote a good deal of prose/ but most of it, except the 
Tales from Shakespeare, was unsuccessful. He won 
some reputation in his selections from old dramatists, 
as a discerning critic of good plays, but fame did not 
come till the Essays of Ella. These did not appear in 
collected form till 1823, though for three years preced- 
ing Lamb had been writing some of the numbers for the 
London Magazine. His only other work of importance 
was the Last Essays of Eli a, collected in 1833 and con- 
taining many of his best writings. 

Retired on a pension in 1825, Lamb pictured his lot 
in the essay called " The Superannuated Alan." " I walk 
about, not to and from/' 1 he says; " I grow into gentility 
perceptibly." He loved old ways, old friends ; he hated 
to think of himself as middle-aged and serious — or, as 
he put it in humorous phrase, he " resented the imperti- 
nence of manhood " and had an " intolerable disinclina- 
tion to dying." Truly quaint he must have appeared in 
his rusty-black knee breeches, when all the world was 
going into long trousers, stuttering out his boyish fun 
— submitting when some one valued himself on being 
" a matter-of-fact man " that he (Lamb) valued himself 
on being " a matter-of-lie man," — and bringing always 
with him the spirit of whatsoever was old-fashioned and 
lovable in literature — Beaumont, Sir Thomas Browne, 
Isaak Walton, and " hearty, cheerful Air, Cotton/' At 



314 A History of English Literature 

Enfield, which he called a " vale of deliberate senecti- 
tude." he died quietly on December 2j % 1834. 

Works. Though the lover of Lamb comes finally to 

enjoy almost anything that came from his pen, none of 
Lamb's works except Elia is of great distinction. In 
Elia, however, he takes rank with the foremost writers 
of the "familiar" essay; no one has equaled him in 
abundance and delicacy of humor. The name " Elia " 
Lamb took from a clerk he had known in the South 
Sea House thirty years before, but he himself is Elia, 
as Addison was the Spectator. Lamb's humor defies 
analysis, but one of the things that has made it last so 
well is undoubtedly the fact that his style is as humorous 
as his thought. A few sentences from " A chapter 011 
Ears " may serve to show not only the humor of his 
language — the " headlong nonsense " of his vocabulary, 
— but will reveal, too, the tender sentiment into which 
he passed from time to time and which saved his joking 
from mere buffoonery. 

I have no ear. 

Mistake me not. reader — nor imagine that I am by nature 
destitute of those exterior twin appendages, hanging orna- 
ments, and (architecturally speaking) handsome volutes to the 
human capital. . . . When therefore I say that I have no ear. 
you will understand me to mean — for music. To say that this 
heart never melted at the concord of sweet sounds would be a 
foul self-libel. "Water parted from the Sea'' never fails to 
move it strangely. So does "In Infancy." But they were used 
to be sung at her harpsichord. . . . 

I even think that sentimentally I am disposed to harmony. 
But organically I am incapable of a tune. I have been prac- 
tising "God save the King'" all my life; whistling and hum- 



The Age of Romanticism 315 

ming it over to myself in solitary corners; and am not yet ar- 
rived, they tell me, within many quavers of it. Yet hath the 
loyalty of Elia never been impeached. 

If Lamb's city life and his choice of familiar, " un- 
romantic " subjects would seem to contrast strangely 
with the intense Romanticism of his contemporaries, we 
must not forget that in his early days and to a certain 
extent in his maturity he was as sentimental as any 
young Romanticist, but he had too much humor to be 
victimized by his emotions. Even in Elia, however, the 
treatment, the style, is whimsical, fantastic, a far re- 
move from the sturdy matter-of-fact manner of John- 
son's Age. And nothing could be more un-Augustan, 
more wholly Romantic than the profuse language and 
the careless construction of Lamb's sentences. Finally, 
for his literary tradition he went back, like so many of 
his fellow-writers, to the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
turies. ' The sweetest names," he says, " and which 
carry a perfume in the mention, are Kit Marlowe, Dray- 
ton, Drummond of Hawthornden, and Cowley. . . . 
Winter evenings — the world shut out — with less of 
ceremony the gentle Shakespeare enters." 

GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON (1788-1824). 

Byron was naturally a fighter. At college he ex- 
celled in boxing; later, he was a champion of the revolu- 
tionary spirit that lived on after the French Revolution; 
and he died in the Greek struggle for independence. In 
fact, it may be said that he defied English social laws, 
not so much because of profound convictions, as because 
he was " the arch-apostle of revolt," To the solution 



316 A History of English Literature 



of the problem between democracy and monarchy he 
brought little except vigorous enthusiasm ; as Goethe put 
it, " When he thinks, he is a child ; " and he himself said, 
in 1813, " I have simplified my politics into an utter 
detestation of all existing governments." In curious 

contrast to this splendid 
vigor was coupled in 
Byron's nature a deal 
of affectation and pride 
— " big bow-wowish- 
1 ness." He was capable 
of insincerity one mo- 
ment and sincerity the 
next; his whole life 
was a miserable confu- 
sion of petulance and 
generosity, with the 
stronger side emerging 
more and more towards 
the end. Both of these 
sides were expressed 
abundantly in his po- 
%g etry. The weaker side 
1 was responsible for a 
quantity of sentimental 
verses; the stronger, however, produced poetry so great 
that many * have classed him with our very first poets. 

Life. Byron was born in London on January 22, 
1788, the only son of Captain Jack Byron and Catherine 
Gordon. On the death of his great-uncle, in 1798, he 
1 Notably Scott, Goethe, Arnold, Taine. 




LORD BYRON 



The Age of Romanticism 317 

inherited the Byron estate at Xewstead and became 
" Lord Byron." His natural wilfulness developed easily 
under a mother who at one moment covered him with 
caresses and at another pursued him with a poker and 
called him a " lame brat." How sensitive he was may 
be imagined from the fact that he never forgot the 
taunt, and in one of his last works, The Deformed 
Transformed, made Arnold reply to his mother's re- 
proaches, " I was born so, mother." At Harrow Byron 
made little mark — " I was a most unpopular boy, but 
led latterly." As might be supposed, his teachers found 
him difficult to manage. From Harrow he went in 1805 
to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he continued to 
follow his impulses. The chief of these was to pose 
as rather wicked and very gay; he spent much of his 
time in revelry, and finally he brought a bear to college, 
to " sit for a fellowship." Another of Byron's impulses 
was sentimental love. His first passion came at the age 
of eight. 

It was while he was at Cambridge that Byron's first 
published verses, Hours of Idleness (1807), appeared. 
The book was violently attacked by the Edinburgh Re- 
view. The fighter in Byron was immediately aroused. 
He rearranged a poem he had already begun and by the 
spring of 1809 published it as English Bards and Scot eh 
Reviewers, a satire, after the manner of Pope's Dunciad, 
in which he -had a hard word for nearly all of his con- 
temporaries. It should be added that he later regretted 
a good deal that he had said, and he suppressed the 
fifth edition. 

Byron had left Cambridge in 1808 without a degree. 



318 A History of English Literature 

The following year he went with a friend for a two 
years' trip abroad. The literary result of this trip was 
Childe Harold. Byron had not thought it worth pub- 
lishing, but it achieved immediate and unprecedented 
success. Scott was surpassed in his own field; Byron 
" awoke and found himself famous." For two years 




NEWSTEAD ABBEY, BYROX'S HOME 



he poured out long narrative poems — The Giaour 
(1813), The Bride of Abydos (1813), the Corsair 
(1814), and Lara (1814), — all of which enjoyed the 
same enthusiastic reception on the part of the public. 

In addition to his literary fame, moreover, Byron 
found himself the center of adulation in spciety. This 
pleased his vanity, and incidentally led him into foolish 
escapades. His marriage, in 181 5, to a Miss Milbanke, 
put only a temporary check to his weaker side; he soon 



The Age of Romanticism 319 

quarreled with his wife; society turned against him; 
and in 18 16 he left England for good. 

The greater part of the next six years Byron spent in 
Italy. For a while at Venice his excesses amounted to 
plain coarseness, but he was usually temperate; through 
most of his life, in fact, he subjected himself to a strict 
diet, partly on account of his health, partly in order to 
preserve the beautiful features which charmed so many 
people in his day and which have been perpetuated in 
the idealized pictures of him, with the open collar and 
the curling locks. A great deal of his time in Italy — 
chiefly at Ravenna, Pisa, and Genoa — was spent in 
writing. His output was enormous : Manfred and 
Tasso in 1817; Beppo in 1818; Mazeppa and part of 
Don J nan, in 18 19. In 1821 came more of Don Juan, 
Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, and Cain. He wrote 
easily and without painstaking revision, but, even then, 
the quantity is striking; one wonders at the fertility of 
his genius : he was inexhaustible. In the next three years 
came, besides minor pieces, the Vision of Judgment, 
Werner, The Island, The De.formed Transformed, and 
the rest of Don Juan. 

While in Italy, Byron had shown a strong interest in 
the cause of Italian freedom and had figured as a chief 
among the Carbonari. In 1823 he threw in his lot with 
the Greeks and was made commander of Marco Boz- 
zaris's famous band of Suliotes; but, before he saw ac- 
tual fighting, he died of a fever at Missolonghi on April 
19, 1824. There was a captivating power in his per- 
sonality. His friends loved and admired him; his sol- 



320 A History of English Literature 

diers followed him eagerly; and on his death all Greece 
went into mourning. The better side of Byron was up- 
permost in these last days ; one feels his " sincerity and 
strength" — the greatness of spirit that inspired Shelley 
to call him " the Pilgrim of Eternity." 

Works. The quantity, as much as the quality, of 
Byron's poetry is what strikes the reader. About his 
verse there is a volume and flow, as of a mighty river; 
though, to keep up the figure, much of it is muddy and 
much frothy. Byron wrote carelessly and had not a 
nice ear for either rhythm or rime. When the verse 
is at its best, however, there is a magnificence, a fullness 
to it that can be met nowhere else in such abundance. 
It is this splendor — what Swinburne meant by the " sin- 
cerity and strength," — that makes the power of such 
lines as — 

The mountains look on Marathon 
And Marathon looks on the sea; 

And musing there an hour alone, 

I dreamed that Greece might still be free; 

or the w T hole of the splendid poem beginning, 

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. 

Of the longer poems, Childe Harold is full of such pas- 
sages; perhaps the most familiar are the description of 
Waterloo, the picture of the Colosseum, and the apos- 
trophe to the ocean. Childe Harold, however, is con- 
spicuous, too, for much sentimental melancholy; Byron 
liked to make a show of his private feelings. As time 
wore on, this characteristic disappeared to a certain ex- 



The Age of Romanticism 321 

tent, while there grew on him a somewhat cynical hu- 
mor, seen at its best in Don Juan, in such lines as the 
following : 

A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping, 

Dirty and dusty, but as wide as eye 
Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping 

In sight, then lost amidst the forestry 
Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping 

On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy ; 
A huge, dun cupola, like a foolscap crown 
On a fool's head — and there is London Town ! 

Don Juan, in fact, Byron's longest and really greatest 
work, shows all of his characteristics : his sentimental 
melancholy; his jesting, sometimes bitter, sometimes in 
good fun; his emotional love of nature; his cheap vul- 
garity; and his " imperishable strength." 

Neither Don Juan nor Child e Harold tells a con- 
nected story and both poems are at their best in the di- 
gressions. Of the narrative poems, shorter and more 
connected in plot, The Prisoner of Cliillon and Mazeppa 
are the best. The first tells the story of a man who has 
seen his brothers die near him in prison and who, at 
length released, regains his " freedom with a sigh; " the 
second tells of the terrible ride of a man bound on a 
wild horse. Byron tried his hand at drama, but though 
Manfred and Cain show his strength, his plays are not 
up to his other poems, partly because he could not write 
good blank verse. In lyrics, however, he is often at his 
best; indeed, the better parts of his longer poems are 
half-lyrical. Emotion, in other words, not thought, was 
Byron's strength; and in his best work is always to be 



322 A History of English Literature 

found an extraordinary intensity of emotion, coupled 
with an irresistible now of language. 

The Romanticism of such a poet lay of course in his 
love of freedom. Whether in his feeling for the sea 
and the storm-beaten mountain, or for the glamour that 
gathers over ancient ruins, or in his defiance of custom 
and hatred of tyranny, Byron's Romanticism sprang from 
a central, consuming love of freedom. It was unthink- 
ing and destructive, as has been pointed out. but when 
Byron was true to his better impulses, it was splendidly 
vigorous and sincere — the 

B:er::a. spirit c: the ehainless n:!nd. 

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822). 

Shelley, also a champion of the Revolution, stands in 
contrast to Byron. " A pardlike spirit, beautiful and 
swift," " a creature of impetuous breath." he was 
wholly lacking in the earthliness of his friend: in his 
emotions he was an " unbodied joy," like his skylark. 
In his Revolutionary attitude, moreover, he was not. 
like Byron, a breaker of idols, but. as he thought, a con- 
structive thinker. It happened that his solution of the 
difficulty was altogether too visionary to work: but it 
was an earnest, intellectual effort to improve, not merely 
to denounce, the condition of the world. 

Shelley's fame to-day, however, does not rest on his 
political and social theories, but on the beauty of his 
poetry — on the 

clear keen joyance 

of his " lvrical crv." 



The Age of Romanticism 



323 



Life. Shelley was born August 4, 1792, at Field 
Place, near Horsham, Sussex. He early developed the 
two characters — dreamer and revolutionist — so notice- 
able throughout his life. Like Milton, he looked upon 
himself as a " dedicated spirit/' and he was willing to 
take any steps in opposition to what he considered tyr- 
anny. The result was 
an unhappy time at 
Eton, where both mas- 
ters and boys seemed 
tyrannical ; expulsion 
from Oxford, where 
the authorities took 
alarm at Shelley's athe- 
ism ; a mad marriage 
with Harriet West- 
brook, to protect her 
from an uncongenial 
home ; and disinherit- 
ance by a father who 
set his entire store on 
being normal and re- 
spectable. Shelley's atheism need not be taken too seri- 
ously; he himself said he used it "to stop discussion, 
a painted devil to frighten the foolish. ... I used it 
to express my abhorrence of superstition." And it must 
be further recognized that Shelley, though he defied social 
laws, was consistently high-minded, the reverse of disso- 
lute. 

Both sides of Shelley found literary expression. 
While he was still at Eton he wrote an extravagant ro- 




Copyright photo. Walker & Cockerell, London, E. C. 
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 



324 A History oi English Literature 

mance, Zas: /.:.;.'. and in the same yeai [810) began to 
publish romantic verses A pamphlet, The Necessity of 
Atheism ( 1811), which brought the trouble at Oxford 
to a crisis, and a long poem, Queen Mab (1813), which 
presented his atheistical philosophy, were his next im- 
portant publications. Shelley later called Queen Mab 
" villainous tras and indeed he soon outgrew the work 
of his youth. More and more, his writings tended to 
express the u unbodied/' ethereal side of him, while his 
other side increasingly confined itself to acts of philan- 
thropy. Alastor (1816) is entirely the production of 
the dreamer in Shelley; and the Revolt of Islam (1817) 
and the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (1816) suggest, al- 
most as much as Alastor, the poet rather than the phi- 
I ; s jpher. 

In 1818 Shelley, now married to Mary Godwin, 
moved to Italy, where on account of his health he re- 
mained for the rest of his life, most of the time at Pisa 
and Lerici. Here he knew Byron intimately. Only 
four ears were left :: Shellej 7 , for he was drowned off 
Leghorn in July, : ^22, but in these years he wrote much 
of his best work: Prometheus Unbound (1819), The 
Ccnci (1819), Tlte Witch of Atlas (1820), and Adonais 
(1821), while the bes: : : his short lyrics, such as the 
Ode to the West Wind, The Indian Serenade, The Cloud, 
7: a Sk\'.J r 'h. Arc;h:.sz. 2.::d H' w ; . :f 7 ;: . , :*el:::g ~ls: 
to this period. 

A:;y account :: Shelley's life v/ouli be :::c::::cle:e 
without a word as :: his :::s::::er :f c :::: position. The 
Revolt of Islam he composed while floating in a boat on 
the Thames, Alastor was written in Windsor Forest, 



The Age of Romanticism 325 

the Ode to the West Wind was " conceived and chiefly 
written in a wood that skirts the Arno," at Pisa Shelley 
did most of his work on the roof, and other pieces were 
written among the broken baths of Caracalla at Rome 
or floating on the Bay of Naples. Shelley's out-of- 
doors, moreover, was not merely the matter-of-fact earth 
and sky; he lived in a realm that we do not inhabit; 




SHELLEY S SOPHOCLES, IN HIS POCKET WHEN HE WAS DROWNED 

and to get his point of view we must get the point of 
view of the skylark, or the cloud, or the west wind. 

Works. In his longer, as well as in his shorter 
poems, it is Shelley's lyrical power that gives his poetry 
distinction. A lover of nature, a man of keen intellect, 
a master of various verse-forms, he treats his subjects 
nearly always in a lyrical way: he is preeminently a 
singer. The emotion in his poetry, however, is never 
physical, like Byron's, but always ethereal, almost with- 
out a trace of earth. It is this quality which makes his 
poetry appeal only to a few — it is so unrelated to life 
— and which caused one critic to call him " a beautiful 



326 A History of English Literature 

and ineffectual angel." The point may be well illus- 
trated by comparing his skylark with Wordsworth's. 
Wordsworth's soars to heaven, but returns to nest on 
the ground; it is a 

Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam; 
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home ! 

Shelley's lark never returns to earth, but keeps on for- 
ever into the sunset and " the pale purple even " — 

Higher still and higher 

From the earth thou springest 
Like a cloud of fire; 

The blue deep thou wingest, 
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. 

This " unbodied " character of Shelley's verse, if it 
leaves us floating " in the luminous void," nevertheless 
has a beauty which springs from its very loftiness : it is 
" touched with hallowed fire." 

Of Shelley's longer poems, Adonais, an elegy written 
on the death of Keats, is the most consistently success- 
ful. It owes much to Byron and his handling of the 
Spenserian stanza, and, like all of Shelley's longer pieces, 
it is too vague and rambling; but it contains some of the 
poet's best work — especially the description of himself, 
with his "branded and ensanguined brow," and the last 
lines, with their splendid vision : 

The breath whose might I have invoked in song 
Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven, 
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng 
Whose sails were never to the tempest given; 



The Age of Romanticism 327 

The massy earth and sphered skies are riven ! 
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; 
Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, 
The soul of Adonais, 1 like a star, 
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821). 

Keats is coupled with Shelley chiefly because both 
poets died young in Italy and because Shelley wrote 
Adonais. He showed no interest whatever in the rev- 
olutionary and humanitarian enthusiasm of his contem- 
poraries; and though he loved, perhaps even more than 
Scott did, the Age of Romance, he had a sense of form 
which links him more truly with Tennyson than with 
the writers of his own time. In point of fact, he was 
a whole generation younger than most of his so-called 
contemporaries, and if he had lived longer, he would no 
doubt be associated chiefly with the Victorian Age. As 
it is, he may be called the last of the great Romantic 
poets. 

Life. Keats, born in London, October 29, 1795, came 
of humble, Cockney stock. At school he was a sturdy 
little boy, of " a terrier-like resoluteness/' with small 
promise of his poetic future. In his fifteenth year he 
started as an apprentice to learn surgery, and five years 
later he passed his examination at Apothecaries' Hall. 
He never practised, however, for he had already de- 
veloped along lines which made him say, " I find I can- 
not exist without Poetry — without eternal Poetry — 
half the day will not do — the whole of it — I began 
with a little, but habit has made me a Leviathan." 

1 " Adonais,'' of course, stands for Keats. 



328 A History of English Literature 

This feeling for poetry dated from his later school- 
days, when he began reading and loving the English 
poets, especially Spenser. Soon after, he became the 
friend of Leigh Hunt, who praised his verses; in 1816 
he wrote his sonnet On First Looking into Chapman's 
Homer; and the following year he published his first 

volume of verse. From now 
on. he was dedicated to poetry ; 
and the extreme sensitiveness 
of his nature to beauty, to- 
gether with his vivid imagina- 
tion, meant that " a virtue went 
away from him into every one " 
of his poems. In 1818 his first 
long poem, Endymion, ap- 
peared and was at once attacked 
by the undiscerning and ac- 
rimonious reviewers. But, 
though the reviewers descended 
to personal abuse, and though 
Byron and Shelley gave au- 
thority to the idea that the young author was practically 
killed by harsh criticism, Keats was not so much affected 
by the comments of others as by his own self-analysis. 
He had written, in the preface to Endymion, that it was 
" a feverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished; " 
and now he deliberately set to work to produce what was 
in truth " a deed accomplished.'' 

His health, however, began to fail as early as 18 19. 
This was due largely to the beginnings of consumption, 
but was certainly promoted by his love for Fanny 




mtukutt 



The Age of Romanticism 329 

Brawne — a love which, he soon came to realize, could 
never be followed by marriage, unless he might over- 
come both his sickness and his poverty. The strain on a 
man of his intensity of feeling was tremendous; his con- 
dition grew steadily worse; by the autumn of 1820 he 
had to go to Italy for his health; and on the 23rd of 
the following February he died. 

The poems of 1819 and 1820 — the only two years 
left to poor Keats after Endymion had appeared — in- 
clude his best work: Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. 
Agnes, the Odes, and Hyperion. So great are these 
few poems that though Keats died at the age of twenty- 
five, he is counted among the first English poets. The 
reply that he thus made to the reviewers who advised 
him to return to his " plasters, pills, and ointment 
boxes " was characteristic of Keats. His interest was 
not in calling names, as Byron did in English Bards and 
Scotch Reviewers, but in serving poetry. He wrote, 
" I think I shall be among the English poets after my 
death;" and Arnold comments: " He is; he is with 
Shakespeare." 

Works. In his ode On a Grecian Urn Keats con- 
cludes with the lines, 

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all 
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. 

These two verses express the character of all his 
thought and work. Somehow we feel, after reading 
his poems, that nothing can be wholly true that is not 
beautiful and that nothing can be really beautiful that 
is not true; and we feel it all the more because Keats 



33^ A History oi English Literature 



does not preach at us, but actually 

beauty in his lines. We are convi 

his beautiful language and hi 

if a i:~ icult test :: a^cly. ::r the 
untrue, b 



— -- 



it 



*r s taste may be 



almost unerri: ig tasl 
say exactly what he 
finger tips, he had ai 
values of color and 

the fell: "hue stanza 



A 



- 1 .:;: ::: the : 

A::i nvikrh: 

A shieAei s:u 



world n 



vutn tne rare a.vuty t: 

a::z meant. Sensitive :■:■ the 

jualed appreciation of the rich 

h A f : :c exantzle : : this is 

1 The Eve of St Agnes: 



h::::-r:i5S 



::•:::: ievice. 



.-es. 



h: : v.-:::r-5 : 



:t::^ 

: :: tueer.s 



re :.:ra:t tuns. 



^ 



:: -vhatever "'as beautiful a:t;i true, s: that, though he 
did not know Greek, he was able to grasp the Greek 
spirit; and, never lominated the narrow classicist: 



:a::v ::te:t u:uue:::e i 



_7ree-a ne 



* v — . v 1 1 :: e z u 



?h 



ease :::::- the spi 

szeare's zap. A 
orovir.ee. s: Ke: 
his; where er b 

X where z:es h 

in his :de 7: j . 



r the Middle Ages and of Shake- 
ran took all knowledge to be his 

rents t: hive taken beauty t: :e 
t it he recognized it, intuitively, 
rtry maintain a higher level than 

v:/.:.V. :ne stanza :: vuiich shov/s 



The Age of Romanticism 331 

especially well the kind and the greatness of his best 
work : 

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird ! 

Xo hungry generations tread thee down ; 
The voice I hear this passing night was heard 

In ancient days by emperor and clown : 
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 

Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home, 
She stood in tears amid the alien corn ; 

The same that oft-times hath 
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam 
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. 

THOMAS DEQUINCEY (1785-1859). 

Though DeOuincey was older than many of the 
writers of the Age of Romanticism, he did not begin writ- 
ing till his thirty-fourth year; and though much of his 
work is decidedly Romantic, he suggests strongly, espe- 
cially in his biographical work for the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, the Victorian essayists. He was still writing 
when Carlyle, Macaulay, Tennyson, Browning, Dickens, 
and Thackeray were in middle life. 

DeOuincey says of himself that he had a " constitu- 
tional determination to reverie " ; and this quality is evi- 
dent in all his greatest writings. The abiding value of 
The Confessions, Suspiria, and The English Mail-Coach 
lies in the profusion and richness of their visions. Xot 
even Coleridge could match the grandeur of DeQuincey's 
dreams. 

Life. DeQuincey was born August 15, 1785, at Man- 
chester. He was a strange child. At the age of five, 
after the death of his sister, he heard " a solemn wind. 



33- A History of English Literature 

... It was a wind that might have swept the field of 
mortality for a thousand centuries." A great scholar, 
especially in Greek, he nevertheless hated his school life 
and ran away, in 1802. to North Wales and then to 
London. In the capital he lived for a while in abject 
poverty, 1 but in 1S03 he became reconciled to his family 
and entered Worcester College, Oxford. There he again 
did excellent work, but again ran away just before the 
examination. He was a sensitive, dreamy boy, and. in 
addition, he suffered much from a peculiar malady of the 
stomach, brought on by his starvation in London. It 
was to relieve this pain that in 1S04 he first took opium; 
and though he was for forty years a victim of the habit 
and at times suffered far more from the opium than 
from the malady, it should be remembered to his credit 
that he took it for pain, not for pleasure, and that he 
was finally man enough, at the age of fifty-nine., to win 
a victory over the drug. 

At twenty-one DeQuincey came into a small legacy and 
two years later moved into Dove Cottage, Grasmere, 
the old home of Wordsworth. Though he did not write 
anything for some time, he was a friend of literary men 
— among them Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Hazlitt — 
and was always a great student. He lived, Hood says, 
in the midst of " a German Ocean of literature in a storm, 
flooding all the floor, the tables : billows of books tossing, 
tumbling, surging open/' Soon after his marriage in 
1 Si 6, however, he found himself in narrow circum- 
stances — he was too generous and unpractical to live 
thriftily — and in 1S19 he began to write editorials for 

1 These day- are vividly described in The Confessions. 



The Age of Romanticism 



333 




the Westmoreland Ga- 
zette. In 1 82 1 came 
his famous Confessions 
of an English Opium- 
Eater, and these were 
followed, till his death 
in 1859, by a great 
number of publications, 
no less remarkable for 
their variety than for 
their quantity. Among 
them should be noted 
the novel Klosterheim 
(1832); The Logic 
of Political Economy 
(1844) ; such contri- 
butions to Blackwood's 

Magazine and Tait's Magazine as Murder considered as 
One of the Fine Arts, Dr. Parr, The Revolt of the Tar- 
tars, Snspiria de Profundis, The English Mail-Coach, 
Joan of Arc, and Literary Reminiscences ; while his con- 
tributions to the Encyclopedia Britannica included arti- 
cles on Goethe, Pope, Schiller, and Shakespeare. 

All through his life DeQuincey's odd ways continued. 
He was so absent-minded that he sometimes forgot to 
finish dressing, and once he actually did not notice that 
his hair had caught fire till his daughter told him. Even 
in his old age, when he was living with his daughters near 
Edinburgh, he would disappear at times for several days. 
Shy, scholarly, eloquent if you could get him to talk, 
almost diminutive in stature, he was a remarkable figure. 



Copyright photo, Emery Walker, Ltd., London, E. C. 
THOMAS DEQUINCEY 



334 ^ History of English Literature 

" You would have taken him," Carlyle says, " by candle- 
light, for the beauti fullest little child; blue-eyed, blonde- 
haired, sparkling face — had there not been something too 
which said, ' Eccovi! this child has been in Hell.' ' 

Works. In DeQuincey's prose one finds an abundance 
of scholarship and quaint humor, but the chief quality, 
and the most memorable, is his power of expressing 
magnificent visions. The highest purpose of literature, 
he himself said, was not to teach, but to move; and of this 
lf literature of power" — what he called "impassioned 
prose " — he has given us triumphant examples. Their 
greatness lies not only in the wonder of the visions, with 
their gigantic and tumultuous forms, but equally in the 
language, which corresponds exquisitely to the author's 
thought and feeling. No better instance of this power 
can be found than in the " Dream-Fugue " of The Eng- 
lish Mail-Coach, where is described the u flying equip- 
age " which, racing up the illimitable central aisle of a 
"mighty minster." carries to the nations "the secret 
word " — " Waterloo o ; R e : vet Ch ristendo m ! " A 
sentence or two may give at least a glimpse of the vision 
and of the headlong pace :: the style: 

Of purple granite was the necropolis ; yet, in the first min- 
ute, it lay like a purple stain upon the horizon, so mighty was 
the distance. In the second minute it trembled through many 
changes, growing into terraces and towers of wondrous alti- 
tude, so mighty was the pace. In the third minute already, 
with our dreadful gallop, we were entering its suburbs. 

. . . Every sarcophagus showed many bas-reliefs — bas-re- 
liefs of battles and of battle-fields; battles from forgotten ages. 
battles from yesterday; battle-fields that, long since, nature had 
healed and reconciled to herself with the sweet oblivion of 



The Age of Romanticism 335 

flowers ; battle-fields that were yet angry and crimson with 
carnage. Where the terraces ran, there did we run ; where the 
towers curved, there did we curve. . . . Like rivers in flood 
wheeling round headlands, like hurricanes that ride into the se- 
crets of forests, faster than ever light unwove the mazes of 
darkness, our flying equipage carried earthly passions, kindled 
warrior instincts, amongst the dust that lay around us — dust 
oftentimes of our noble fathers that had slept in God from 
Crecy to Trafalgar. 

What DeQuincey says of this hurrying chariot may be 
said equally of his prose: " Of our headlong pace was 
neither pause nor slackening." 

OTHER WRITERS. 

Besides the great names we have just been considering, 
the Age of Romanticism includes many important 
writers, scarcely inferior to those already mentioned and 
deserving of greater notice than our space will allow. 
We should have a very inadequate impression of the age, 
however, if we omitted altogether such authors as Jane 
Austen (1775-1817), who in her novels 1 carried on 
the eighteenth century tradition of the novel and made 
fun of the absurd romances written in her own time. 
Not the least of her powers was that she could make an 
interesting story out of trivial incidents ; she understood 
character. 

Another important figure is Robert Southey (1774- 
1843), whose poetry is pale beside that of his friends, 
Wordsworth and Coleridge, but whose historical prose 
ranks with any of his time. He was poet-laureate for 
thirty years. The Curse of Kehama (1810) is one of 

1 Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, etc. 



336 A History of English Literature 

his best poems, while his best prose may be found in his 
Life of Nelson (1813) and his History of the Penin- 
sular War ( 1823—32 1. 

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) belonged to the 
group intimate with Coleridge and Lamb. In his own 
day he was counted one of the chief prose writers of the 
age ; and his essays on literature, history, and politics still 
live — a fate not often enjoyed by critical literature. 
His Characters of Shakespeare's Plays (1817) and his 
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte (1828-30) are among his 
best work. 

One of the most interesting figures of this period is 
Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), essayist, journalist, friend 
of young poets, — an outspoken liberal who was put in 
prison, in 1813, for saying uncomfortably true things 
about the Prince Regent. Hunt's works, the best of 
which perhaps is The Examiner (1808), are no longer 
much read. 

Among the friends of Hunt should be noted Thomas 
Moore (1779-1852), the Irish poet and the "Tom 
Moore " of Byron's famous little poem beginning 

My boat is on the shore. 
And my bark is on the sea, 
But before I go. Tom Moore, 
Here "s a double health to thee ! 

His best poetry is contained in Irish Melodies (i8c~- 
1834) and Lalla Rookh (1817), while he is remembered 
equally for his long Life of Byron (1830). 

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), the author of the 
Pleasures of Hope ( 1799), has secured himself against 



The Age of Romanticism 337 

oblivion by several stirring battle-poems, among them 
Hohenlinden, the Battle of the Baltic, and Ye Mariners 
of England. 

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), with his 
" carnivorous laughter," has fallen into what seems to 
many undeserved obscurity. Full of imagination and 
feeling, he nevertheless had a sense of form almost as 
perfect as that of Keats; he wrote poetry and prose of a 
high order; and one cannot but think that, though he is 
not now very popular, he will some day come to his own 
again. True lovers of literature, at least, rank him 
among the greatest names of his time. His chief fame 
rests on his Imaginary Conversations (1824-1853) and 
Pericles and Aspasia (1836), but his short poems have a 
grace, a perfection of finish, that deserves attention, too. 
Take, for instance, the following: 

Past ruin'd Ilion Helen lives, 

Alcestis rises from the shades; 
Verse calls them forth ; 't is verse that gives 

Immortal youth to mortal maids. 

Soon shall Oblivion's deepening veil 

Hide all the peopled hills you see, 
The gay, the proud, while lovers hail 

These many summers you and me. 



338 A History of English Literature 



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The Age of Romanticism 339 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

[Xote. Selections from the chief works of nineteenth cen- 
tum authors are so numerous and so accessible that in most 
cases only a standard edition is cited.] 

LITERATURE. Scott. Life by Lockhart, 5 vols. (Mac- 
millan), ranks among the great biographies. A good briefer 
account is by A. Lang (Scribners). The Waverlcy Novels, 48 
vols. (Black), is an excellent edition of Scott's novels. The 
Poetical Works are well edited in the Globe Edition (Mac- 
millan). 

Wordsworth. Life by Myers (English Men of Letters 
Series). See also Arnold's essay on Wordsworth in Essays in 
Criticism, Second Series (Macmillan). "Works ed. by Morley 
in the Globe Edition (Macmillan). 

Coleridge. Life by Campbell (Macmillan). See also Car- 
lyle's account in John Sterling, Chap. VIII (Scribners). 
Poetical Works in the Globe Edition (Macmillan) ; Prose 
Works in the Bohn Library. 

Charles Lamb. Life by Lucas, 2 vols. (Putnam), is the 
best. A good one-volume account by Ainger (English Men 
of Letters Series). The complete Works are published in 12 
vols, by Dutton. 

DeQuincey. Life by Masson (English Men of Letters 
Series). See also DeQuincey's Confessions of an Opium- 
Eater and Autobiographic Sketches. The best edition of 
DeQuincey's works is by Masson, 14 vols. (Black). 

Byron. Life by Roden Xoel (Great Writers Series). See 
also Arnold's essay on Byron in Essays in Criticism, Second 
Series (Macmillan). Complete poems ed. by Prothero and 
Coleridge (Scribner). 

Shelley. Life by Symonds (English Men of Letters Se- 
ries). Works, ed. by Dowden, in the Globe Edition (Mac- 
millan). 

Keats. Life by Colvin (English Men of Letters Series). 



340 A History of English Literature 

Complete TVorks, ed. by Forman. 5 vols. (CrowelH : Poetical 
Works, ed. by Houghton in the Aldine Poets (Macmillan 1. 

Maria Edgeworth's best novel. Castle Rackrext, is pub- 
lished by Macmillan ; Taxe Austen's novels are very con- 
veniently published on India paper. 2 vols., by Nelson. 
Southey. Laxdor. Campbell, and Moore are well represented 
in the Golden Treasury Series (Macmillan). The Camelot Se- 
ries 1 Scott > has good selections from Hazlitt and Leigh 
Hunt. Selections front Hood are published by Routledge. 
hi: st of these writers are well represented in Ward, Craih, 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

The following list forms a fairly good introduction to the 
Age of Romanticism : 

Scott's Ivaxkoe Quextix Durward, Kexilworth. Talis- 
man. Woodstock. Guy Maxxerixg : Marmiox. Lady of the 
Lake. 

Wordsworth's Michael. Happy Warrior.- Ode to Duty, 
Ode ox Ixtimatioxs of Immurtality, Tixterx Abbey. A 
Poet's Epitaph, and many shorter poems (a good collection of 
w n : c h : s g : v e n : n t ;t e Go. a c<: 1 r e a s : 1 y y o e r : es ) . 

Coleridge's Axciext Marixer, Christabel. Kubla Khax. 
Fraxce, Frost at Midxight. Fears ix Solitude. Ode to De- 
tectiox, hymx before suxrise ix the \~ale of chamouxi ; 
selections iront tne Lectures ox Shakespeare. 

Lamb's Essays of Elia, especially Christ's Hospital. A 
Chapter or. Ears. Dream-Children, The Praise of Cliimney- 
Szoeepers. Roast P:'m Poor Relations, The Sy.peranny.ated Mar. 
Old Chine; Hester and The Old Familiar Faces i two 
poems 1 : and selections from the Letters. 

DeOuincey's Coxfessioxs of ax Opium-Eater. To ax of 
Arc. The Exglish Mail-Coach. Revolt of the Tartars, and 

SUSPIRIA DE PROFUXDIS. 

Byron's Prisoxer of Chillox. Mazeppa. Childe Harold 
(Cantos III and IV). Ode to Xapoleox. The Isles of Greece, 



The Age of Romanticism 341 

Fame, The Destruction of Sennacherib, and selections from 
Manfred, Cain, and Don Juan. 

Shelley's Skylark, West Wind, Cloud, Areth us a, Pan, 
Euganean Hills, Stanzas Written in Dejection near 
Naples, Prometheus Unbound, and Adonais. 

Keats's Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion, Ode on a Grecian 
Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode to Autumn, La Belle 
Dame Sans Merci, and selections from the Sonnets. 

In addition one should read, even in an introductory ex- 
cursion, one of Jane Austen's novels (preferably. Pride and 
Prejudice) and such selections from other authors as are given 
in Manly's English Poetry (Ginn) and Manly's English Prose 
(Ginn) or in Century Readings (Century). 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. McCarthy, The Epoch of 
Reform (Epochs of Modern History). Carlyle's French Revo- 
lution, 3 vols. (Scribner), gives an excellent idea of the revo- 
lutionary forces at work, though it has little value as a well- 
proportioned history. Saintsbury, History of Nineteenth Cen- 
tury Literature (Macmillan) ; Beers, English Romanticism in 
the Nineteenth Century (Holt) ; and Herford, Age of JVords- 
worth (Macmillan). H. C. Robinson's Diary, Dorothy Words- 
worth's Journal, DeQuincey's Literary Reminiscences, and 
Hunt's Autobiography are indispensable contemporary sources. 
See also special chapters in books recommended on p. 433. 

POETRY AND FICTION. Dickens's Tale of Two Cities, 
Scott's Antiquary, George Eliot's Adam Bede, Lever's diaries 
O'M alley and Ton Burke of Ours, Thackeray's Vanity Fair, 
and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables are novels that cover a wide 
range of subjects from the French Revolution to the Battle 
of Waterloo. Campbell's Battle of the Baltic and Ye Mariners 
of England (in conjunction with which may be read Kipling's 
White Horses, Xewbolt's Admirals All, and Xoyes's Nelson's 
Ghost) are poems recalling Nelson's great victories; Wolfe's 
The Burial of Sir John More suggests the Peninsular War; 
and Byron's Ode to Napoleon and Childe Harold (Canto III) 
bring back the final struggle with Bonaparte. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE VICTORIAN AGE 

(1835-1900). 

The nineteenth century is so near to us that it is diffi- 
cult to put its chief characteristics into a few words, and 
impossible, even at great length, to treat it quite accu- 
rately. Certain large qualities, however, begin to stand 
out with comparative clearness. More than any age 
since the time of Elizabeth, it represents diversity of 
interest and amazing vitality. This new life would seem 
to have sprung chiefly from two things : from the period 
of Revolution that immediately preceded it ; and from the 
remarkable growth of Science, which began in the eight- 
eenth century. Both of these, however, go back, if some- 
what vaguely, to the sudden awakening of interest in this 
world which took place in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies. Without some understanding of the general trend 
of human endeavor — moving successively towards re- 
ligious, political, and social freedom — we shall miss much 
of the meaning of nineteenth century literature. 

The Revolution, which took definite shape in France, 
affected all Europe. The poets of the early nineteenth 
century had heard its message of emancipation and had 
dreamed of ideal democracy, but the first practical ex- 
pression of it in England was the Reform Bill of 1832. 
This was followed throughout the century by further 

342 



The Victorian Age 343 

reform measures — attempts to bring about fair elec- 
tions and fair taxes, to improve public institutions, and 
to adjust the relations of labor and capital; and though 
recent events show that the adjustment is far from com- 
plete, the political England of the present day is al- 
most immeasurably advanced over the England of 
George III. 

This advance must be traced in part to the great 
development in commercial prosperity, which began in 
the eighteenth century. With it the great middle class 
came into control ; cities grew astonishingly ; 1 education 
was given to the masses ; new universities were founded ; 
the cheapness and accessibility of books brought the 
"general reading public" into being; — every man, in 
short, had a chance to know and to think. 

This commercial prosperity, of course, went hand in 
hand with the practical application of science. The use 
of steam, the telegraph and telephone, the electric light, 
the perfection of machinery in manufacture, are only the 
chief triumphs of nineteenth-century man over matter. 
The whole stupendous development may be indicated 
by recalling the fact that news from China, in 1840, took 
four months to reach Boston and that now it takes lit- 
erally no time at all; in fact, if it be wired westward, 
it takes less than no solar time. When we add to these 
advances in the realm of transportation the almost count- 
less discoveries in other branches — such as medicine, 
surgery, astronomy, geology, biology, psychology, — 
when we realize, indeed, that science as we understand 

1 The population of London had increased in 1901 to six times that 
of 1801, 



344 ^ History oi English Literature 

it hardly existed a century ago, we have some idea of its 
importance in the Victorian era 

To many this immrtance -earned dangerous. For 
science was :■: : busy attempting to explain all things by 
material evidence: it strive, for a while, to understand 
the next world as well as this by scientific researches; — 
or, worse yet. it made men so comfortable that they grew 



ccmplacent and materialistic: they lived in a world of 
bard fact, where money seemed to accomplish more than 
ideals. In the one case the old dogmatic religions were 
knocked on the head: in the other, religion ceased to be 
mans concern. For a while, there was confusion 
enough; but towards the end of the century men began 
to see what Tennyson with " prophetic soul " had seen 
in 1850, that science and true religion are complemen- 
tary, not antagonistic; and still more recently the west- 
ern world has begun to awaken from its hard material- 
ism into a fresh sense of spiritual values. The movement 
towards universal peace and the brotherhood of man be- 
longs properly to such recent times that it has little 
hcerature and its history is as yet unwritten: but. as 
Wordsworth and Shelley were the prophets of an age 
they did not live to see, so Tennyson. Carlyle, and Rvs- 
kin dreamed and preached of conditions which we are 
beginning to think almost possible. 

The literature of the Victorian Age was chiefly prose. 
In the hirst place. Scott in his l:h::cvV; Xovcls had set 
the fashion for the reading public. More important 
still, men's minds were generally turned to the hard fact. 
away from the romantic dreams of -; cets. The new 
reading public, further, was able to read prose when it 




POETS CORNER, WESTMINSTER ABBE\ 



The Victorian Age 347 

was too ignorant to read verse. The result was that 
the novel, particularly the realistic novel, flourished; 
while towards the end of the century a new kind of fic- 
tion, the short story, supplied the needs of readers with 
little leisure. There was, of course, some romantic 
fiction, and there grew up, too, a new kind of out-of- 
doors Romanticism, best illustrated by the work of Rob- 
ert Louis Stevenson; but the main course of fiction, 
through Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot to Kip- 
ling, was realistic. In addition, there was a great mass 
of historical and scientific prose; while the prose essay 
became popular for all sorts of writing, for the " litera- 
ture of power " as well as for the " literature of knowl- 
edge/' Since prose was the medium of expression 
sought by nearly every one, great names as well as small 
figure in the list of historians and essayists : it is the age 
of Macaulay, Carlyle, Ruskin, Arnold, Newman, Dar- 
win, and Spencer. 

Age of prose though it was, there was a great deal of 
poetry written. In only two cases, however, — those of 
Tennyson and Browning, — is the poetry above the sec- 
ond rank; but the names of such poets as Arnold, Kings- 
ley, Rossetti, Swinburne, and Kipling are important in 
this myriad-sided period. Though some of the poetry, 
notably that of Tennyson, Browning, and Kipling, re- 
flects the age in which it was written, it is far less repre- 
sentative than the prose. Much of it, in Tennyson as 
well as in such poets as Swinburne, is a continuation of 
the Romantic tradition; while other parts deal, like the 
prose visions of Carlyle and Ruskin, with worlds not yet 
realized. 



348 A History of English Literature 

ALFRED TENNYSON (1809-1892). 

Tennyson is for many reasons the most representative 
poet in the Victorian Age. More than any he reflected 
its expansion and its conflict; he carried on the noblest 
traditions of the poetry of the past; and he 

dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be. 

In addition, he was the most popular poet of Victorian 
days; his poems were read by all sorts of people. As a 
result, his influence on the reading public was larger 
than that of other poets, who appealed only to compara- 
tively small groups of readers. His activity covered 
about sixty years, from 1830 to 1892. 

Life. Few of the details of Tennyson's life are sig- 
nificant. More important are the general facts of his 
intimacy with nature, his shyness, and his love of seclu- 
sion ; while it is essential to remember that his period of 
literary activity covered the whole age of Victorian lit- 
erature, from the death of Scott to the last decade of the 
nineteenth century. 

Born August 6, 1809, in the village of Somersby, Lin- 
colnshire, Tennyson received the greater part of his early 
education from his father, the rector of the parish. He 
soon w T as trying his hand at verses and together with 
his brother Charles he brought out some juvenile poems 
in 1827. The following year he entered Cambridge, 
where he became the intimate friend of Arthur Henry 
Hallam, later immortalized in Tennyson's In Memoriam. 
His college career was irregular and never finished; its 



ALFRED TENNYSON 
From a photograph by Mayall 



The Victorian Age 351 

chief interest centers in his friendships, his membership 
in a literary society, " The Apostles/' and his winning 
the prize medal for poetry. Too shy to take part in the 
debates of the society, he was brilliant in conversation, 
and he read poetry beautifully. " What struck one most 
about him," says one who knew him, " was the union of 
strength with refinement." In 1830 he went with Hal- 
lam to Spain, for the purpose of giving financial aid to 
the revolutionists; and in 183 1 he left Cambridge with- 
out a degree and returned for six years to his Lincoln- 
shire home. 

Tennyson's first volume, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, ap- 
peared in 1830, but his first book of importance, contain- 
ing such famous verses as The Lady of Shalott, CEnone, 
The Palace of Art, and The Lotus-Eaters , belongs to 
the year 1832. The book was vigorously attacked by 
the reviews; Tennyson was called " Schoolmiss Alfred "; 
and the Quarterly's criticism was so severe that he nearly 
gave up writing. For ten years he published nothing, 
and during this time he suffered a great deal from de- 
pression of spirits, partly because of the death of his 
friend Hallam, partly because of his apparent failure. 
In 1842 he published his third volume, containing such 
poems as Ulysses, Morte d* Arthur, and Sir Galahad; the 
book was well received ; and in spite of occasional set- 
backs, his rise in both fame and fortune dates from this 
time. Carlyle has left a famous picture of him: " One 
of the finest looking men in the world. A great shock 
of rough dusky dark hair; bright laughing hazel eyes; 
massive aquiline face, most massive yet most delicate; of 
sallow brown complexion, almost Indian-looking, clothes 



352 A History of English Literature 

cynically loose, free-and-easy, smokes infinite tobacco. 
His voice is musical, metallic, fit for loud laughter and 
piercing wail, and all that may lie between; speech and 
speculation free and plenteous; I do not meet in these 
late decades such company over a pipe! We shall see 
what he will grow to." 

Carlyle did not have to wait long to see, for in 1847 
Tennyson published his long poem, The Princess, a pio- 
neer consideration of the question of woman's rights, 
and justly famous for its beautiful songs; while in 1850 
came In Memoriam, his tribute to his friend Hallam. 
The same year, on the death of Wordsworth, Tennyson 
was made Poet Laureate. In this year, too, increasing 
income enabled him to marry Emily Sellwood, to whom 
he had been engaged for many years. From now on he 
was the recognized chief among English poets. His 
books were widely read; his purse was filled, and he 
moved into a comfortable house at Farringford, in the 
Isle of Wight. Among his intimate friends he num- 
bered such men as Browning, Thackeray, Ruskin, and 
Gladstone; and he was frequently visited and honored 
by royalty. Still very retiring, however, he shunned 
publicity and declined a baronetcy, offered him by both 
Gladstone and Disraeli; it was not till 1883 ^ lat he con- 
sented, somewhat reluctantly, to accept Gladstone's offer 
of a peerage. 

Additional w r orks added to Tennyson's fame. His 
great Ode on the Duke of Wellington in 1852, Maud in 
1855, the first of his Idylls of the King in 1859, and the 
very popular Enoch Arden in 1864 so bettered his finan- 
cial condition that he built a large house at Aldworth, 



The Victorian Age 353 

in Surrey. Here he spent the summers, reserving Far- 
ringford for the winter months. To the end of his life 
he continued to write with vigor. Additional Idylls of 
the King appeared in 1869 and 1885 ; a new field, drama, 
was entered upon with success as late as 1875 — in 
Queen Mary, Harold, and Becket; and such well-known 
shorter poems as The Revenge, The Defence of Luck- 
now, Ode to Virgil, and Crossing the Bar belong to the 
later years. Few poets have enjoyed so much honor in 
their life-time as Tennyson did. He died at the age of 
eighty-three and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Works. One cannot read much of Tennyson with- 
out realizing that his poetry reflects the thought of his 
age. In Maud, with its championship of the Crimean 
War and its closing moral — 

It is better to fight for the good than to rail at the ill — 

he touches an actual event; in The Princess, with its- 
conclusion that " woman is not undeveloped man, but 
diverse/' — " not like to like, but like in difference," he 
argues a question that fifty years later grew burning; 
and in such poems as Locksley Hall Sixty Years After 
and In Memoriam he reviews the spiritual conflict that 
the growing science was beginning to start in men's 
minds. 

Forward, backward, backward, forward in the immeasurable 

sea, 
Sway'd by vaster ebbs and flows than can be known to you 

or me, — 

here, in Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, he touches 



354 A History of English Literature 

the theory of Evolution that after Darwin's great book, 
in 1859, invaded all forms of thinking; and he goes on: 

Many an TEon moulded earth before her highest, man, was 
born, 

Many an ^Eon too may pass when earth is manless and for- 
lorn ; 

and though he does not see the world getting steadily 
better, though he beholds too often 

Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud, 

he concludes the poem with confident hope, — 

Follow Light, and do the Right — for man can half-control his 
doom. 

Through In Memoriam, the beautiful poem to his friend 
Hallam, sounds the same earnest confidence, with an 
added religious dignity and a strong conviction that our 
faith depends more on our inner sense of truth than on 
mere human knowledge : 

Our little systems have their day; 
They have their day and cease to be : 
They are but broken lights of thee, 

And thou, O Lord, art more than they. 

We have but faith : we cannot know ; 

For knowledge is of things we see ; 

And yet we trust it comes from thee, 
A beam in darkness : let it grow. 

Growing thus by our faith, our " higher knowledge," we 
come nearer gradually to 



The Victorian Age 355 

That God. which ever lives and loves, 

One God., one law, one element, 

And one far-off divine event. 
To which the whole creation moves. 

Though this philosophy of life as an evolution was a 
hard blow to the old dogmatic theologies, the churches 
came to realize, some years later, a newer, more spiritual 
theology ; while scientists, over-bold at first, came equally 
to recognize that their province was the material world. 
Men learned, through science, to look the facts in the 
face, to give up dogma and superstition, and they 
learned, through the new, larger faith, to understand 
what Wordsworth had understood years before when he 
wrote of 

A motion and a spirit, that impels 

All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts, 

And rolls through all things. 

Nowhere has Tennyson comprehended the whole subject 
better than in his little poem, The Making of Man: 

Where is one that, born of woman, altogether can escape 
From the lower world within him, moods of tiger, or of ape ? 
Man as yet is being made, and ere the crowning Age of ages, 
Shall not aeon after aeon pass and touch him into shape? 

All about him shadow still, but, while the races flower and 

fade, 
Prophet-eyes may catch a glory slowly gaining on the shade, 
Till the peoples all are one, and all their voices blend in 

choric 
Hallelujah to the Maker, "It is finish'd. Man is made." 

Tennyson's work, however, has special interest apart 



356 A History of English Literature 

from its interpretation of the age; the beauty of the 
verse appeals by itself. The chief reasons for this ap- 
peal are to be found in his rare descriptive and lyric 
power. A minute knowledge of nature, especially of 
flowers, which supplied him with beautiful figures of 
speech, and an ear peculiarly sensitive to rhythm and 
the harmony of words served him so well that citation 
might be made from nearly all his poems. Such pas- 
sages as that in Ulysses ending 

And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy, — 

or the lines in The Palace of Art, 

A full-fed river winding slow 
By herds upon an endless plain, 
The ragged rims of thunder brooding low, 
With shadow-streaks of rain, — 

or those descriptive of Sir Launcelot, 

All in the blue unclouded weather 
Thick jewell'd shone the saddle-leather, 
The helmet and the helmet-feather 
Burn'd like one burning flame together, 
As he rode down to Camelot ; — 

these are among the best-known examples of Tenny- 
son's descriptive skill. But, far more than this mere 
skill, he brought to his work imagination and singing 
power that defy analysis. It is these qualities that we 
feel, though we cannot explain them, in such songs as 
those in The Princess and in Maud and in the full mel- 
ody of Crossing the Bar. After all, these poems were 



The Victorian Age 357 

written to be enjoyed, rather than explained; and we 
have only to read them to enjoy them. 

A word must be added, however, about Tennyson's 
love of the classics. Many a phrase is a direct transla- 
tion from the classics, familiar in such passages as 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows, 

and in Sir Bedivere's " dividing the swift mind, in act 
to throw " ; while in the little poem to Catullus, the poet 
breaks directly into Latin — "O venusta Sirmio," — as 
if English were not quite sufficient. This intimacy with 
the classics, moreover, so passed into Tennyson's nature 
that he absorbed much of their beautiful dignity, so evi- 
dent in his stately lines To Virgil: 

Xow thy Forum roars no longer, fallen every purple Caesar's 

dome — 
Tho' thine ocean-roll of rhythm sound forever of Imperial 

Rome — 

I salute thee, Mantovano, I that loved thee since my day began, 
Wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of 
man. 

ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889). 

Browning entered in spirit into the life he depicted 
and expressed himself more often through persons than 
through scenes. This ability, to see with another's eyes 
and to speak with another's tongue, made him realize 
the great truth that there is something to be said for al- 
most every point of view. The poet's task, as Chaucer 
had conceived it five hundred years before and as Brown- 



358 A History of English Literature 

ing now conceived it, was to present the different, ap- 
parently conflicting views ; to show truth, not in isolated 
perfection, but, mingled with falsehood and fiction, in all 
sorts of ordinary people and commonplace things. This 
Browning did with extraordinary vigor and versatility. 
An odd love of the fantastic produced in Browning's 

poetry what has often 
been called obscurity. 
He was greatly inter- 
ested in odd, out-of- 
the-way points of view 
and in unfamiliar fig- 
ures, such as Paracel- 
sus, Rabbi Ben Ezra, 
Abt Vogler; and this 
interest, coupled with 
a breathless speed of 
thought that meant 
broken sentences, re- 
sulted in a style that is 
often difficult to read. 
In Browning's main 
robert browxixg work, however, he is 

From a photograph, copyright by William i i i 

H. Grove. London, presented by the poet merely COmpICX, not OD- 
to Mrs. Katharine Bronson . . A 

scure; and m the exu- 
berant message of hopefulness and honest endeavor which 
he reiterated, in common with the other great spirits of 
his time, he is not even complex. Still, he is chiefly the 
scholar's poet ; and one who does not bring a considerable 
knowledge of the classics, of history, and of literature 
will miss much of Browning's meaning. 







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The Victorian Age 359 

Life. Browning's life, more than one would suppose 
from his poetry,, was quiet and conventional; he hated 
to be thought eccentric. Except for the dramatic inci- 
dent of his marriage, the details of his life are even less 
significant than those of Tennyson's. 

Browning was born May 7, 181 2, in Camberwell, on 
the outskirts of London. He was particularly fortunate 
in his parents : a quiet, scholarly father, who held a com- 
fortable position in the Bank of England, and a musical, 
deeply religious mother. Except for a few years at a 
private school and a few months at London University, 
Browning received most of his education at home. 
Among his favorite authors were Byron, Shelley, and 
Keats; and he himself early showed a disposition to 
make verses. At twenty-one he wrote Pauline and the 
following year he contributed four short poems, among 
them Porphyrias Lover, to the Monthly Repository. 
His first work of importance, however, was Paracelsus 
( 1835), which, though it was not widely read, gained 
him a foothold in literary circles. The following year 
the actor Macready asked him to write a play. Straf- 
ford, the resulting drama, was well acted by Macready 
and Helen Faucit and met with great success. For sev- 
eral years Browning wrote plays, among them Pippa 
Passes, King Victor and King Charles, The Return of 
the Druses, and A Blot in the 'Scutcheon; but in 1842 
he quarreled with Macready and soon after gave up writ- 
ing plays. During these years of play-making, Brown- 
ing wrote many other poems — his long poem Sordello, 1 

1 Carlyle said that his wife was unable to tell whether " Sordello " 
was a man, a city, or a book.' 



360 A History of English Literature 

and such famous shorter pieces as The Pied Piper, How 
They Brought the Good News, and Home Thoughts 
from the Sea. 

Among the admirers of Browning's work was the 
poetess Miss Elizabeth Barrett, already far more fa- 
mous than he. Miss Barrett was an invalid, as a result 
of a riding accident in her youth, but by 1846 doctors 
agreed that fresh air and sunshine might effect a cure; 
and Browning, as his intimacy grew to love, urged a 
trip to Italy. But Miss Barrett's father refused. He 
had given his life to caring for his daughter, till the 
hushed and darkened room had become meat and drink 
to him, till he was unable to forego the sentimental mel- 
ancholy of watching by a sick-bed. Browning there- 
upon eloped with Miss Barrett; in Italy she recov- 
ered her health; and the story of their fifteen years of 
married life is one of the most beautiful records in 
history. 

For a while Browning produced little poetry. 
Christmas Eve and Easter Day, The Statue and the 
Bust, and Men and Women were the only new publica- 
tions between his marriage in 1846 and his wife's death 
in 1 86 1, but Men and Women contained some of his best 
pieces, notably By the Fireside, The Last Ride Together, 
Evelyn Hope, and A Grammarian's Funeral. 1 After 
his wife's death he turned with energy to writing and 
continued to produce actively for the next twenty-five 
years. The great work of this period was The Ring 
and the Book (1868), "the Roman Murder story," as 
he called it, — but he wrote a great deal else: transla- 
1 These were later published under Dramatic Lyrics and Romances. 



The Victorian Age 361 

tions from the Greek; more dramatic monologues, 
among them Abt Vogler and Rabbi Ben Ezra; such well- 
known poems as Prospice and Herve Riel; and a great 
many others, such as Ferisht all's Fancies, in which 
his grotesque manner had grown into a mannerism. 
His last piece, however, the Epilogue to Asolando, has 
the ring of his best work and fitly closed the life of 

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, 

Never doubted clouds would break, 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would tri- 
umph, 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake. 

Works. It is not quite fair to give an isolated ex- 
ample of Browning's obscurity, for the difficulty often 
vanishes when the passage is read in its context. It is 
easier to illustrate his love of unusual order of words 
and awkward sounds, as in 

Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed 
beast? 

The grotesqueness of such lines, together with his 
breathless haste of thought and sudden digressions, ac- 
counts largely for the obscurity of certain passages. 

The breathlessness, however, is first cousin to one of 
Browning's chief merits : his keenness of thought. Few 
other poets give the reader quite the intellectual exhila- 
ration that he does. He seems to see at once more 
quickly and more clearly than most men; and his keen 
insight finds corresponding expression in vivid language, 
such as 



362 A History of English Literature 

Then we began to ride. My soul 
Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll 
Freshening and fluttering in the wind. 

And he brings the same vivid language to his descrip- 
tions, familiar in such phrases as 

In a gash of the wind-grieved Apennine, 

and 

Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay. 

Browning's chief fame, however, rests on two things : 
his way of getting at truth and his exuberant optimism*. 
The first of these is well illustrated by his greatest and 
longest poem, The Ring and the Book. The " book " 
was a small volume which contained the record of the 
trial and conviction of Count Guido Franceschini, for 
the murder of his wife Pompilia. The figure of the 
" ring " was this : that pure gold is unmalleable, that it 
must be mixed with alloy till it has been " wrought," but 
that the workman finally extracts most of the alloy, 
leaving 

The rondure brave, the lilied loveliness, 
Gold as it was, is, shall be evermore. 

Truth must be handled in much the same way; is re- 
vealed, in fact, in half-truths, fictions, and falsehoods, 
till, finally, out of all available points of view we make 
the ring of truth. So, in The Ring and the Book Brown- 
ing, working from the facts contained in the " old yel- 
low Book " he had picked up in Florence, presents every 
sort of evidence for the prosecution and defense : each 



The Victorian Age 363 

speaker, even the murderer, gives a reasonable story; it 
is hard for the reader to decide whether the one " Half- 
Rome " or "The Other Half-Rome" is right; and it is 
only at the end, when the Pope sums up the case — ex- 
tracts the alloy, as it were, — that the guilt is seen 
clearly to rest on the count. Now this is Browning's 
point: that both halves of Rome were right, yet neither 
wholly right; that any one in fact, no matter how de- 
testable or prejudiced, reveals, even when he is at his 
worst, some glints of the truth. So, in his other poems 
in the form of dramatic monologue Browning speaks 
for all sorts of people, from their point of view, — 
whether for wretched impostors like " Mr. Sludge, The 
Medium," for philosophers like " Rabbi Ben Ezra," or 
for musicians like " Abt Vogler." In most cases Brown- 
ing leaves it to the reader to extract the alloy — he pre- 
fers to present the truth as it comes in this world, re- 
vealed in imperfect personalities; but out of the different 
pictures, or, rather, out of a composite of them all, the 
reader comes gradually to the wholesome realization 
that truth is lurking everywhere, that even 

This rage was right i' the main. 

This view, that man is " a God though in the germ," is 
of a piece with the optimism that rings in Browning's 
poetry, all the way from 

God 's in his heaven, 

All 's right with the world ! 

in Pippa Passes to the vigorous encouragement in the 
last lines he wrote, nearly fifty years later ; 



364 A History 01 English Literature 

Xo, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time 

Greet the unseen with a cheer ! 
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be. 
" Strive and thrive cry Speed, — fight on, fare ever 
There as Here 

Browning felt abundantly, as he makes Saul come to feel 
when David sings to him, 

How good is man's life, the mere living ! how fit to employ 
All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy ! 

And at the e::d of his poem Childe Roland to the Dark 
Tone Came he makes the adventurous soul press on, 
in spite of dreary discouragements, in spite of a vision. 
at the last, of all the rest who have gone before and 

failed : — 

There they s:::i. r^::^e: ?Tor.g :he hillsides, me: 
To viev.- the las: :: :::e. :-. living; :ra:::e 
For one :::re picture! In a sheet of flame 

I saw them and I knew them alL And ye: 

Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, 

And :le-.v. " Childe Roland to the Dark Tome zame? 

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY (1800-1859). 

Though Macaulay wrote s me stirring poetry, his 

great achievement was in prose. In addition, he was 
brilliant orator and a recognized power in the House : : 
Commons. A man of high but practical ideals, he was 
satisfied with a world of fact, was without spiritual 
c:;ri;s::y: he expresses :l;e '::":: side :: T .~ic:::ia:: ma- 
terialism — practical vigor, shrewdness, success. Pos- 
sessed : a marvelous memory and a great power over 



The Victorian Age 365 

language, he developed a style long famous for its clear- 
ness, brevity, and force, a style which has reached the gen- 
eral public so successfully that journalists have ever since 
followed his lead. No essayist has been so popular ; it is 
said that many have received the chief part of their educa- 
tion from him. His obvious defects, — lack of intellectual 
sympathy and spiritual in- 
sight, — are largely offset by 
his power of making facts 
live again in vivid narrative. 
Life. Macaulay was born 
October 25, 1800, at Rothley 
Temple in Leicestershire, his 
aunt's home. Nearly his 
whole life, however, was 
spent in London, the home 
of his parents, quiet people 

01 the Upper middle ClaSS. Copyright photo. Walker &Cockerell, London, E.O. 

In extreme youth the boy THO mas babington macaulay 
showed strongly the in- 
dustry and love of books which marked his later life, 
and before he was eight he compiled a Compendium of 
Universal History, while, soon after, he wrote long 
poems in Scott's manner. Passing through Cambridge 
University, where he made a brilliant record, he studied 
law in London, and in 1830 was elected to the House 
of Commons. He already had a great reputation as a 
talker — while still at college he not only surpassed his 
fellows, but talked so interestingly that he once held a 
distinguished company of older men spell-bound through- 
out the day, forgetful of meals. In the House he allied 
himself with the reform party and supported eagerly the 




t A History of English Literature 

great Reform Bill :: 1832. "'Whenever he rose to 
speak," Gladst ":.-. said ' i! v ; ; : summons like a trum- 
pet-call to fill the benc:-T ; From 1834 to 1838 he 
served mi the Supreme -Council in India; from 1839 :: 
:^_: he was Secretary of War, under Melbourne; in 
1846 he was Paymaster-General under Russell. 7r ::; 
now :::. however, though he sat ?,rain in the House of 
. )mmons ] and after 1857. when he was raised to the 
peerage in :he House :: Lords, he gave up active work 
in public office and turned increasingly to his writing. 

He had come early into literary fame, ha 1823 he 
began tc write for Knight's Magazine, and in : v -^ his 
:'T:;;arkable Essay on Milton appeared in the Edinbrn 
Review. Through the rest :: his life he marshaled in 
brilliant e s 5 , ;s the abunda::: knowledge that his keen 
memory retained from his wide and exact reading. 
Most of these — among them the essays on Hall-am' s 
Cc r i ~ :nal History F let the S tat Lord 

Von Ranke's His:: :~ tt : Popes and Addison — came 
>ut in the E Ret :: while :: the Ena :dia 

B itanmca ( Sth edition) he ;::;::ibuted brilliant biog- 
raphies, which included those :: Banyan hhh tith, 
and Johnson. Besides his essays, iMacaulay gsir.ei 
fame by his poetry. After leaving college he did not 

ite a great deal of verse, but his Armada, h and 
La:: if Ancient Rome 1842 were immediately pop- 
ular. The great work :: his maturity, however, was his 
History :~ £ ".' land. In the original plan i: was :: Dover 
the peri : 1 From :: ; : :: [830, but only a small portion, 
as far as William III, was finished before heart disease 
rk short The History, of which the five vol- 



The Victorian Age 367 

times written were published between 1848 and 1861, 
was a colossal undertaking, and on its account Macaulay 
withdrew more and more from active public life. The 
gigantic fragment was at once immensely popular and 
is still read more, perhaps, than any work of a similar 
nature. On December 28, 1859, Macaulay died. He 
was buried in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. 
Works. When Trevelyan, in speaking of Macaulay 's 
conversation, says, " To get at his meaning people had 
never the need to think twice, and they certainly had 
seldom the time," he touches the underlying causes of 
Macaulay's success in his writings. A lucidity that can- 
not be misunderstood and a vigor that compels atten- 
tion are everywhere noticeable. Nowhere are these 
traits more obvious than in his poetry. He is incapable 
of lofty flights; he has no visions to picture, no theory 
of life to express; but he is almost alone in his power 
of portraying a heroic scene. Every boy knows Hora- 
tius at the Bridge, and many a reader has thrilled over 
lvry y especially where the king calls to his men, 

Press where ye see my white plume shine amidst the ranks 

of war, 
And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Xavarre. 

In his prose Macaulay's greatest strength is in vivid 
narrative and in descriptions of persons. He knew how 
to assemble striking details. The balance of his sen- 
tences, moreover, though it sometimes gives his prose 
a deafening monotony, as of a reiterating machine, gives 
it also a dignity and eloquence that are impressive. A 
good example of this eloquent style at its best is the 



368 A History of English Literature 

paragraph in the Essay on Milton where Macaulay 
speaks of the Restoration: 

Then came those days., never to be recalled without a blush. 
the days of servitude without loyalty and sensuality with- 
out love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise 
of cold hearts and narrow minds, the golden age of the cow- 
ard, the bigot, and the slave. The King 1 cringed to his rival 2 
that he might trample on his people, sank into a viceroy of 
France, and pocketed, with complacent infamy, her degrad- 
ing insults, and her more degrading gold. The caresses of 
harlots, and the jests of buffoons, regulated the policy of the 
state.. The government had just ability enough to deceive, and 
just religion enough to persecute. ... In every high place, 
worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial and Moloch ; 8 
and England propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with 
the blood of her best and bravest children. Crime succeeded 
to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the race 4 accursed of 
God and man was a second time driven forth, to wander on 
the face of the earth, and to be a by-word and a shaking of 
the head to the nations. 

THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). 

In contrast to the easy success of the matter-of-fact 
Macaulay, Carlyle struggled for years in obscurity. 
wrestled with spiritual doubt, suffered and aspired, hated 
the " Age of Steam," and, finally, wrote in stirring words 

1 Charles II. 2 Louis XIV. 

3 Milton, in Paradise Lost, described the profligate Royalists of 
Restoration days as "the sons of Belial,, flown with insolence and 
wine ; n and in the same poem Belial and Moloch are prominent 
among Satan's rebel leaders. 

4 The Stuarts, driven out by Cromwell in 1649, by William of 
Orange in 1689. It must be clearly remembered that Macaulay. who 
over-paints the infamy, was " a bottomless Whig." 




THOMAS CARLYLE 
From a photograph taken in 1874 by John Patrick, Edinburgh 



The Victorian Age 



371 




BIRTHPLACE OF CARLYLE, ECCLEFECHAN 



a gospel that reached the heart of mankind. This gos- 
pel was that the " crown of spiritual manhood " is won 
by honest endeavor, by production of the best that each 
has in him. " All true Work is Religion : and whatso- 
ever Religion is not Work may go and dwell among 
the Brahmins, Antinomians, Spinning Dervishes, or 
where it will; with me 
it shall have no harbor." 
A gloomy, sensitive 
man, full of rugged 
strength and master of 
a powerful style all his 
own, Carlyle is one of 
the most interesting 
personalities in his age. 

Life, Carlyle, born at Ecclefechan, in southwestern 
Scotland, on December 4, 1795, was the son of a stone- 
mason, " wholly a man of action, with speech sub- 
servient thereto." After attending the Grammar school 
at Annan, near-by, Carlyle, too poor to ride, walked 
eighty miles to Edinburgh and entered the university. 
He was destined for the Scottish church, but he soon 
gave up studying for the ministry, and for several years 
after leaving college went through an unhappy period, 
with uncertain prospects. A good deal of this time was 
spent in teaching, but Carlyle did not like the work. 
His other occupation was literary, chiefly the transla- 
tion of scientific articles, but for years he was aimless 
and drifting; he did not make any success of writing 
till he was about thirty. In 1821, however, came the 
turning point in his life. He was going through much 



372 A History of English Literature 

the same spiritual struggle as he ascribes to Teufels- 
drockh in Sartor Resartns, and to him, as to Teufels- 
drockh, there came the answer to the " Everlasting No " : 
" I am not thine [the devil's], but Free, and forever hate 
thee!" "Perhaps," he goes on, "I directly thereupon 
began to be a man." It was at about the same time, too, 
that Carlyle fell in love with the brilliant Jane Welsh, 
whom he married five years later ; and these two things, 
his love and his spiritual " re-birth," were the beginning 
of a central purpose in his life. 

Carlyle's first literary work of importance was his 
translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister in 1824. This, 
with other translations, a Life of Schiller (1825), and 
his essay on Burns, made up his best early work; but 
he was as yet little known. Poor and in weak health, 
he continued to have periods of depression, as he did 
to the end of his days ; but both Carlyle and his wife, in 
spite of gloom and loneliness, had sufficient sense of 
humor to joke about " the raal mental awgony in my ain 
inside." In 1828 they went to live at Craigenputtock, 
an old farm sixteen miles from Dumfries, and there Car- 
lyle wrote his Sartor Resartns. It was at first refused 
by publishers, but finally appeared serially (1833-34) 
in Fraser's Magazine. To be in the literary center, in 
spite of noise and expenses, the Carlyles moved in 1834 
to Cheyne Row, Chelsea, in the West End of London. 
Here Carlyle had a double wall built to his attic study, 
for the purpose of keeping out the noise of the street 
and the crowing of the neighbors' cocks. It is from this 
time, with the publication of Sartor, that his literary 
prominence dates. At the age of forty he had strug- 



The Victorian Age 373 

gled out of obscurity. He soon numbered great men 
among his friends, Southey, Landor, Dickens, Tennyson, 
Emerson, and, later, Browning and Ruskin. 

The French Revolution (1837) won Carlyle a wide 
circle of readers and admirers, and his lectures, the chief 
of them on Heroes and Hero-Worship ( 1840), were even 
more popular. It was in the Heroes, as in Chartism 
(1839) and Past and Present (1843) that ' ie began to 
figure as a sort of prophet, denouncing the shams and 
materialism of his age, and upholding honest work as the 
" crown of spiritual manhood." " I do not want cheaper 
cotton, swifter railroads," he wrote; "I want what 
Novalis calls ' God, Freedom, Immortality/ ' It is hard 
to overstate the enthusiasm with which serious young 
men looked up to him, as the true counselor. As he 
had but one great thing to say, in the course of time his 
repetition grew impatient and shrill, but we must not on 
that account undervalue the importance of his prophecy 
or its influence on his generation. 

Carlyle's greatest work, however, was in interpreta- 
tive history. Besides the French Revolution, he edited 
Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (1845), an d wrote the 
Life of John Sterling (1851), and the History of Fred- 
erick II ( 1858-65). The only other work of importance 
was his Reminiscences, published after his death. 

During his later years honors were heaped upon Car- 
lyle. In 1865 he was elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh 
University, and in 1874 he was decorated with the Prus- 
sian Order, " Pour le Merite." After his wife's death 
in 1866, however, he was lonely and unhappy. He wrote 
little during his last years, and seemed more than ready 



374 A History of English Literature 

for death, though he lived on to 1881. He was buried 
among his people at Ecclefechan. 

Works. Carlyle was at his best when he was de- 
scribing men and the atmosphere that surrounds great 
events. His word-pictures of Coleridge, DeQuincey, 
Daniel Webster, Tennyson, are masterpieces in them- 
selves, as are his descriptions of different crowds — now 
taking the Bastille, now moving restless and talkative 
about the Palais Royal, or, led by Cromwell and stern 
conscience, singing their hymn, " strong and great," at the 
foot of Doon Hill. Carlyle's value as a historian is 
lessened by his lack of cool, "historical" judgment; he 
was too apt, not to find a conclusion from the facts, but 
to find and emphasize the facts that supported his theory ; 
and his love of the picturesque played havoc with his 
sense of proportion. In spite of these defects, however, 
he presented men and affairs so vividly that he is still 
widely read for history as well as for his style. The 
chief value, however, lies in his style: vivid, rugged, 
tempestuous. Saturated with German idioms and fond 
of unusual, sudden expressions, he often falls into a 
manner that, while it arrests our attention, pleases only 
his special lovers. What really counts most is his vivid, 
figurative language; in one keen phrase he strikes off 
the essential character of a man or an event — as when 
he calls Coleridge a " kind of Magus, girt in mystery 
and enigma," or speaks of Webster's " amorphous, crag- 
like face." One of the best examples of his power of 
vivid description is the picture of Night as seen by 
Teufelsdrockh from his tower: 

That stifled hum of Midnight, when Traffic has lain down 



The Victorian Age 375 

to rest; and the chariot-wheels of Vanity, still rolling here 
and there through distant streets, are bearing her to Halls 
roofed in; and only Vice and Misery, to prowl or to moan like 
nightbirds, are abroad : that hum, I say, like the stertorous, 
unquiet slumber of sick Life, is heard in Heaven ! Oh, un- 
der that hideous coverlet of vapors, and putrefaction, and un- 
imaginable gases, what a Fermenting-vat lies simmering and 
hid! The joyful and the sorrowful are there; men are dying 
there, men are being born ; men are praying, — on the other 
side of a brick partition, men are cursing; and around them 
all is the vast, void Xight. . . . Upwards of five hundred thou- 
sand two-legged animals without feathers lie around us, in 
horizontal positions; their heads all in nightcaps, and full of 
the foolishest dreams. Riot cries aloud, and staggers and 
swaggers in his rank dens of shame ; and the Mother, with 
streaming hair, kneels over her pallid dying infant, whose 
cracked lips only her tears now moisten. . . . All these heaped 
and huddled together, with nothing but a little carpentry and 
masonry between them ; — crammed in, like salted fish in their 
barrel ; — or weltering, shall I say, like an Egyptian pitcher of 
tamed vipers, each struggling to get its head above the others: 
such work goes on under that smoke-counterpane ! 

The central idea of Carlyle's " gospel " has been al- 
ready indicated. His highly figurative language, as 
might be supposed, sets forth admirably his emotional 
exhortations. A good example of his whole doctrine, 
as well as of his emotional style, is contained in the chap- 
ter on " Reward " in Past and Present: " Labor, wide 
as the Earth, has its summit in Heaven. . . . Complain 
not. Look up, my wearied brother : see thy fellow Work- 
men there, in God's Eternity ; surviving there, they alone 
surviving: sacred Band of the Immortals, celestial Body- 
guard of the Empire of Mankind. . . . Thou too, shalt 




376 A History of English Literature 

return home in honor ; to thy far-distant Home, in honor ; 
doubt it not, — if in the battle thou keep thy shield! " 

JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900). 

In many ways unlike Carlyle, Ruskin was nevertheless 
like the Scottish prophet in one great respect : his detesta- 
tion of materialism and his championship of honest la- 
bor. " I grew also 
daily more and more 
sure," he says in Prce- 
terita, . . . "that the 
only constant form of 
pure religion was in 
useful work, faithful 
love, and stintless char- 
ity." " No other man 
in England," Carlyle 
wrote of him, . . . 
" has in him the divine 
rage against iniquity, 
falsity, and baseness 
that Ruskin has, and 
that every man ought to 
have." Unlike Carlyle, 
however, Ruskin had 
a very artistic nature: 
during the earlier part 
of his maturity nearly all of his work was in the field of 
art, whether in painting or in writing about art ; 1 in his 

1 Ruskin belonged to the group called " Pre-Raphaelites," men 
who strove to revive the " simplicity of nature " in the artists before 
Raphael and the Renaissance. 



JOHN RUSKIN 

From a sketch by himself, published in the 
" Life and Work of John Ruskin," by W. 
G. Collingwood, M.A. By permission of 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



The Victorian Age 377 

later writings, more definitely in the moral field, he would 
admit of no true usefulness without beauty and of no 
true beauty without usefulness ; and he developed a beau- 
tiful style. 

Life. Ruskin, the son of a well-to-do wine-merchant, 
was born in London on February 8, 1819. His educa- 
tion, largely at home, was strict but sympathetic. Al- 
lowed few toys, he developed a keen imagination — so 
that " I . . . could pass my days contentedly in tracing 
the squares and comparing the colors of my carpet"; 
" summarily whipped " if he cried or tumbled on the 
stairs, he " soon attained serene and secure methods of 
life and motion "; and forced by his mother to learn 
much of the Bible and to read it all, aloud, once a year, 
— " to that discipline — patient, accurate, resolute — I 
owe," he says, " not only a knowledge of the book, which 
I find occasionally serviceable, but much of my general 
power of taking pains, and the best part of my taste in 
literature." This early education, if to it is added his 
fondness for drawing and his love of nature, gives almost 
a complete idea of the kind of man Ruskin came to be. 
In 1836 he entered Oxford, where he did well, but weak 
health forced him to leave the university before he took 
a degree. To add to his suffering, he was shy, sensi- 
tive, and had an unhappy way of falling in love — being 
" reduced to a heap of white ashes," he called it. None 
of his love affairs, not even his marriage, turned out 
well. 

While at Oxford Ruskin began to attract attention by 
his writing, especially by some articles in Loudon's 
Architectural Magazine, His first great work, however, 



378 A History of English Literature 

was Modern Painters :S_; . the result of two years in 

Italy. F:ur additional volumes appeared in 1S46- i860; 
and though the first volume met with much hostile 
criticism, the author was recognized as a foremost writer 
: d art Other works in the same field were Sei en Lamps 

of Architecture (1849), Pre-Raphaelitism (1850), and 
Stones of Venice (1851—53), In 1869 Ruskin was ap- 
pointed Slade Professor of Art a: Oxford, and for the 

::exr fifteen years he continued to lecture and write on 
art — such books as Lectures on Art (1870), Mornings 

;';: rljrcr.ee ( 1S75— 77 '• a::d ^ : . Mark's Res: 1884 , 

As early as 1S62. hivever. Ruskin be van to figure as 
a moral teacher. U',::;> 7'::s La: was his hrst work in 
this field. It was soon followed by Sesame and Lilies 
:S6s) and The Crown if WUd Dliue (1866). But it 
must not be supposed that he was working in t : separate 
fields ; his works on art are full of his doctrines of sim- 
plicity, genuineness, and usefulness, and his " preaching " 
is full of examples from the held of art. Like Carlyle, 
he grew impatient: and as Carlyle had railed against 
sham and idleness, he railed against "the deforming 
mechanism" of modern cities. u I should like." he says 
in F crs Ch'ciccrj, :i to destroy and rebuild the Houses of 
Parliament, the National Gallery, and the East End of 
London: and to destroy, without rebuilding, the new 
town of Edinburgh, the north suburb :f Geneva, and the 
city of New York." Still, though he often overstated 
the case till he became ludicrous, the value of his insist- 
ence on simple virtues can hardly be exaggerated. He 
was an inspiration to many who did not wholly agree 
with him in detail. He himself said, ''' You cannot judge 



The Victorian Age 



379 



with judgment if you have not the sun in your spirit and 
passion in your heart." He realized, in other words, 
that mere intellect cannot take the place of spiritual in- 
sight; and, led by him, many came to realize the same 
great truth. 

One of the most in- 
teresting phases of 
Ruskin s re form- work 
was his attempt to do 
practical things. He 
broke stones on the 
road; he swept street- 
crossings ; he started a 
model tea-shop ; he 
founded linen-indus- 
tries ; and he established 
a model printing-house. 
Finally, in Fors Clavi- 
gera (1871-78), a ser- 
ies of public letters to 
workingmen, he set 
forth the scheme of his 
Company of St. George. 
The company, which 
was never formed, was 
to organize model communities throughout England — 
" to deliver the people from all the moral and physical 
abominations of city life, and plant them again on 
the soil of an England purified from steam, from filth, 
and from destitution. " Too visionary and too premature 
to succeed, Ruskin's ideas, in modified form, are bearing 




RUSKIN S GRAVE, CONISTON 



380 A History of English Literature 

fruit in countless practical schemes of the present cen- 
tury. 

The only other writing that Ruskin did was Prceterita 
(1885-89), a sort of autobiography, suggested by Pro- 
fessor Charles Eliot Norton. His last years were spent 
quietly at Brantwood, on Lake Coniston, where he died, 
January 20, 1900. He was buried, according to his wish, 
without black pall, in Coniston churchyard. 

Works. In all Ruskin's writings, whether on art or 
morality, the chief excellence lies in two things : his 
beautiful style and his simple sincerity. A passage from 
the Preface to Modern Painters gives an excellent idea 
of his power over language : 

Perhaps there is no more impressive scene on earth than 
the solitary extent of the Campagna of Rome under evening 
light. Let the reader imagine himself for a moment with- 
drawn from the sounds and motion of the living world, and 
sent forth alone into this wild and wasted plain. The earth 
yields and crumbles beneath his foot, tread he never so lightly, 
for its substance is white, hollow, and carious, like the dusty 
wreck of the bones of men. The long knotted grass waves 
and tosses feebly in the evening wind, and the shadows of its 
motion shake feverishly along the banks of ruin that lift them- 
selves to the sunlight. . . . Watch-towers of dark clouds stand 
steadfastly along the promontories of the Apennines. From 
the plain to the mountains, the shattered aqueducts, pier beyond 
pier, melt into the darkness, like shadowy and countless troops 
of funeral mourners, passing from a nation's grave. 

Ruskin's great earnestness, as well as the paternal man- 
ner that grew upon him, is better illustrated by the fol- 
lowing paragraph from the chapter on " War " in The 
Crown of Wild Olive: 



The Victorian Age 381 

You women of England are all now shrieking with one 
voice, — you and your clergymen together, — because you hear of 
your Bibles being attacked. If you choose to obey your Bibles, 
you will never care who attacks them. . . . The Bible tells 
you to dress plainly, — and you are mad for finery ; the Bible 
tells you to have pity on the poor, — and you crush them under 
your carriage-wheels; the Bible tells you to do judgment and 
justice, — and you do not know, nor care to know, so much as 
what the Bible word " justice " means. Do but learn so much 
of God's truth as that comes to ; know what He means when He 
tells you to be just: and teach your sons, that their bravery is 
but a fool's boast, and their deeds but a firebrand's tossing, unless 
they are indeed Just men, and Perfect in the Fear of God; — 
and you will soon have no more war, unless it be indeed such 
as is willed by Him, of whom, though Prince of Peace, it is 
also written, " In Righteousness He doth judge, and make war." 

MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888). 

Another great writer who had a message for the peo- 
ple of Victoria's day was Matthew Arnold. What he 
particularly attacked was the intellectual narrowness and 
the self-sufficiency of Englishmen. The only true rem- 
edy, he held, was culture — not mere book-learning, but 
the kind of culture which should make for sanity, dig- 
nity, accessibility to ideas, the culture which he described 
by Swift's phrase " sweetness and light/' Arnold is 
identified with the best Oxford tradition. 

As a prophet he seems insignificant beside Carlyle and 
Ruskin, who have been called the English Isaiah and 
Jeremiah; but he is a master of lucid prose — prose that 
itself illustrates the culture which he championed; and 
he ranks high among the poets of his time. 

Life. Arnold was born at Laleham, just west of 



382 A History of English Literature 

London, in 1822. Six years later his father, Dr. 
Thomas Arnold, became head-master of Rugby — the 
famous head-master of Tom B roam's School Days, — 
and there and at Oxford the boy received his chief edu- 
cation. He won the Newdigate Prize for poetry at Ox- 
ford, but it was some time later that he came into liter- 
ary prominence. After 
about six years spent in 
teaching at Rugby and 
in serving as private 
secretary to the Mar- 
quis of Lansdowne, he 
was appointed, in 185 1, 
an Inspector of Schools, 
a position at which he 
worked hard for over 
thirty years. 

Though he published 
some of his best poems 
in 1849 an d 1852, he 
was not widely recog- 
nized till 1853, when 
his book called Poems 
by Matthew Arnold, a New Edition, brought him de- 
served fame. The book included, besides earlier pieces 
of merit, Sohrab and Rustum, The Scholar-Gypsy, and 
Philomela, as well as his famous preface on poetry. In 
1857 he was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford, a 
position which he held for ten years. After i860, how- 
ever, he wrote little verse. 

Arnold's first work in prose was books on education. 




MATTHEW ARNOLD 



The Victorian Age 383 

In 1 86 1 and 1862 he published his well-known lectures 
on Translating Homer, and in 1865 his Essays in Criti- 
cism set him among the first essayists of his day. 
These earlier works had already shown a tendency to 
point out " the intellectual failings of his own nation," 
but it was not until Culture and Anarchy (1869) that he 
entered directly on his mission of attacking what he be- 
lieved to be national weaknesses. Friendship's Garland 
(1871), Literature and Dogma (1873), and God and 
the Bible (1875) have kindred purposes: they attack the 
narrowness of English society, politics, and religion, and 
preach " sweetness and light." Later, Arnold turned 
again to more purely literary work, and his Essays in 
Criticism, Second Series (1888) include much of his best 
writing. This was his last publication, for he died in the 
same year. He was buried in Laleham churchyard. 

Works. In his preface on poetry Arnold insisted that 
the " total impression " of the piece was the really im- 
portant thing; and he condemned what he called the 
" caprice " of contemporary, " rhetorical " poetry. He 
caught the spirit of the classics as no other English 
poets have and in his best work reflected a classical dig^ 
nity and simplicity. This quality has prevented his be- 
coming very popular; he appeals to the academic few; 
but to those who understand him and his Oxford tradi- 
tions, his poems are not only a source of delight, but a 
spiritual inspiration. The Persian tale of Sohrab and 
Rustum, telling how Rustum unwittingly slew his son, 
fighting in the enemy's ranks, is probably his greatest 
work, but such pieces as The Scholar-Gypsy, Dover 
Beach, and The Future are more characteristic. It 



384 A History of English Literature 

would be unfair to Arnold to quote a fragment, thus 
obscuring " the total impression," but one of his best 
poems, Requiescat, is so brief that it may be quoted en- 
tire: 

Strew on her roses, roses, 

And never a spray of yew: 
In quiet she reposes; 

Ah ! would that I did too ! 

Her mirth the world required ; 

She bathed it in smiles of glee. 
But her heart was tired, tired, 

And now they let her be. 

Her life was turning, turning, 

In mazes of heat and sound; 
But for peace her soul was yearning, 

And now peace laps her round. 

Her cabined, ample spirit, 

It fluttered and failed for breath ; 
To-night she doth inherit 

The vasty hall of death. 

Of Arnold's prose attacks on the weaknesses of his 
times, Friendship's Garland is perhaps the best, for it 
has a lightness and satiric humor that is too often want- 
ing in his other writings. Culture and Anarchy, how- 
ever, is better known, both for its doctrine of " sweet- 
ness and light" and for its division of Englishmen (ex- 
cept the cultured few) into: (1) Barbarians, the pleas- 
ure-loving aristocracy; (2) Philistines, the narrow, ma- 
terial middle-class; and (3) Populace, the "vast resid- 
uum/' As the years pass, however, people are realiz- 
ing more and more that Arnold's chief merit lies in his 



The Victorian Age 385 

criticisms of poets — especially of Byron and Words- 
worth — and in his urbane, lucid style. 

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870). 

If we begin to make a list of the extraordinary per- 
sonages in the novels of Dickens, we soon realize as we 
record the names of Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Micawber, Quilp, 
Fagin, Mr. Snagsby, Squeers, Sairey Gamp, that no 
English novelist was his equal in creating people who 
are " characters. " This power, together with the au- 
thor's humor, gives his books perennial interest among 
all sorts of readers. In his own day the earnest, if 
somewhat exaggerated and sentimental, attack on pris- 
ons and boarding schools which many x of his books 
made, won them an additional popularity. 

Dickens himself was literally of the streets; he knew 
the life that he depicted. And though the charge is 
often brought against him that he did not understand 
people of refinement and breeding, we must not imagine, 
on that account, that he was vulgar, as some glibly as- 
sert. He reached more hearts than any writer of his 
time ; and he did this because he overflowed with humor 
and sympathy. 

Life. Dickens was born in Portsea on February 12, 
1 81 2. His father, from whom he drew Mr. Micawber, 
never was able to support his large family ; and the only 
visitors who ever came to the mother's " Boarding Es- 
tablishment for Young Ladies " were creditors. At 
eleven the boy was set to pasting labels on bottles in a 

1 Such as Little Dorrit, David Copper-field, Oliver Twist, and 
Nicholas Nickleby. 



386 A History of English Literature 

shoe-blacking factory. Later, he was sent to school for 
a short time, but he never received a good education ; 
and at sixteen he tried his hand at newspaper reporting. 
His success in this field is the best evidence of his nat- 
ural ability; he himself ascribed the success to his love 
for a girl who was the original of Dora in David Cop- 
per field: he says that he went at his work " with a de- 
termination to overcome all the difficulties, which fairly 
lifted me up into that newspaper life, and floated me 
away over a hundred men's heads." Unlike David, 
however, Dickens did not win his Dora, and some years 
later, in 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth. 

By this time he had become more than a reporter. In 
1835 his Sketches by Boz, which appeared in the Monthly 
Magazine and in the Chronicle, attracted so much atten- 
tion that he was asked to write some articles which later 
developed into the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick 
Club (1836— 37V From now on he turned to novel 
writing, which he continued with increasing success till 
his death. Oliver Twist appeared in 1837. Xicholas 
Nickleby in 1839, The Old Curiosity Shop in 1840. and 
Barnaby Ritdge in 1841. These books, like most of 
Dickens's later works, came out serially, and so great was 
their vogue that people who could not read or who could 
not afford to buy them, gathered in groups to hear them 
read aloud. One old char-woman told Dickens's moth- 
er-in-law that she thought " that three or four men must 
have put together Dombeyl" — or, as Mr. Chesterton 
puts it, " Dickens was evidently a great man; unless he 
was a thousand men." Among the most famous of the 
books that followed Barnaby Radge may be mentioned 



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Copyright photo. Emery Walker, London, E. C» 
CHARLES DICKENS 
From a painting by David Maclise 



The Victorian Age 389 

The Christinas Carol (1843), The Cricket on the Hearth 
(1845), Dombey and Son (1846-8), David Copperfield 
(1849-50), Bleak House (1852-3), Little Dorrit 
(1855—7), an d A Talc of Two Cities (1859). 

With the money he made from these publications 
Dickens bought Gad's Hill Place, near Rochester, the 
familiar country of his Pickwick stories, and there spent 
the last ten years of his life. He died on June 9, 1870, 
and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

In thinking of Dickens's appearance we are too apt to 
remember the picture of the middle-aged man who lec- 
tured in America in the sixties. As a young man he 
was " a fine little fellow," with what Forster calls an 
" eager, restless, energetic outlook." 

Works. With the exception of A Tale of Two Cities, 
which, depending largely on an intricate plot, is unlike 
Dickens's other works, his novels owe their fame chiefly 
to two things: the characters and the scenes. Every one 
knows the characters, some of whom have been men- 
tioned above; and few readers are without the experi- 
ence of wishing that Air. Pickwick or Sairey Gamp, — 
to say nothing of many others, — would always be reap- 
pearing on the next page. The scenes, moreover, though 
they are somewhat fitted together in the development of 
the plot, are, like the characters, especially interesting in 
themselves. The reader does not care much, for in- 
stance, whether the scene at the cricket match in Pick- 
wick is going to lead to further developments ; what he 
wants is to have the fat boy perpetually going to sleep, 
Mr. Wardle perpetually rousing him with an oath, Mr. 
Jingle perpetually making astonishing remarks, and Mr, 



390 A History of English Literature 

Pickwick perpetually being imposed upon. Such scenes 
that carry their own interest, whether they are as seri- 
ous as the shipwreck in David Copperfield, as pathetic as 
the death of Jo in Bleak House, or as amusing as the 
Fezziwig's Ball in the Christmas Carol, abound in all of 
Dickens's books and have the rare power of increasing 
the reader's interest each time they are re-read. 

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863). 

Dickens appeals to both young and old readers. 
Thackeray, with a vein of satire in all his works, appeals 
more especially to older readers. He does not so much 

depict the fun of society 
as make fun of it. 
This does not mean, 
hoWever, that he was 
chiefly a fault-finder ; it 
means merely that he 
faced the facts of life, 
that he detested the 
sham and vanity of so- 
ciety, and that, because 
he had a sense of hu- 
mor, he laughed rather 
than railed at mankind. 
But he had a great sym- 
pathetic heart; and he 
put as much of himself 

After a photograph made in New York by into SUCh lovable char- 
Alman. From the collection of the late 

Judge Charles P. Daly. Lent by Mrs. acterS as Dobbin and 
Henry R. Hoyt 




The Victorian Age 391 

Colonel Newcome as he did into such selfish persons 
as Becky Sharp and Beatrix Esmond. The last para- 
graph of his Book of Snobs gives a fair idea of his out- 
look on life : " To laugh at such is Mr. Punch 's business. 
May he laugh honestly, hit no foul blow, and tell the 
truth when at his very broadest grin — never forgetting 
that if Fun is good, Truth is still better, and Love best of 
all." 

Life. Thackeray was born in Calcutta, on July 18, 
181 1, but he was sent to England when he was only six. 
After a good education at Charterhouse School, 1 he went 
to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he made some 
good friends, among them Tennyson, but he left without 
a degree, traveled abroad, studied law for a short time in 
London and art in Paris, till finally, in 1835 he went, 
like Dickens, into journalism. He did not rise, how- 
ever, with the easy success of Dickens; and though his 
sketches and stories in Fraser's Magazine (among them 
the Yellowphish Papers), as well as his poems and Snob 
papers in Punch, brought him some fame, he was a 
struggling journalist and artist till 1848, when Vanity 
Fair reached a large public. Airs. Carlyle said he " beat 
Dickens out of the world." From now on Thackeray's 
success was hardly less than that of his rival, and though 
he lived only fourteen years more, he wrote in that time 
such famous books as Pendennis (1850), Henry Esmond 
(1852), The Newcomes (1855), The English Humour- 
ists (1851), The Four Georges (1856), and The Vir- 
ginians (1857). 

During this material success, however, which with the 
1 A picture is given in the " Greyf riars School " in Pendennis. 



392 A History of English Literature 

fruits of a lecture tour in America left Thackeray fairly 
well-to-do, he suffered a good deal. Of a highly sensi- 
tive nature, he felt keenly adverse criticisms ; while he 
suffered even more from fallings out with some of his 
friends and from the misery of his wife, whose mind 
failed in 1840. The pathos in his life, as in his books, 

is quite as prominent as 
the humor. Only fifty- 
two, he died on Decem- 
ber 24, 1863. 

Works. The plots 
of Thackeray's novels 
are even less conspicu- 
ous than those of Dick- 
ens's books ; the inter- 
est, as in the case of 
Thackeray's master, 
Fielding, centers in the characters. Though these are 
often overdrawn, with satiric effect, they are rarely quite 
extraordinary, like Uriah Heep or Quilp. They appeal to 
the reader who is impatient of exaggerations, who likes to 
study pictures painted with a fine brush, who prefers 
" that form of fiction which exposes the follies and hy- 
pocrisy of mankind rather than its great vices and great 
virtues." Such readers prefer, too, the quiet, subtle 
humor, of which Thackeray was a master, to the more 
boisterous fun of Dickens. 

Henry Esmond and The Virginians, its sequel, differ 
from Thackeray's other work in that they are historical 
novels, with a moving story. Beatrix Esmond, however, 
as some of the minor characters, shows that, even in this 




THACKERAY S GRAVE, KEN SAL GREEN 



The Victorian Age 393 

kind of writing, Thackeray's main interest was in the 
lights and shadows of character. Full scope is given to 
this interest in Vanity Fair and The Newcomes, with the 
result that these books, crowded with " real " persons, 
make the greatest appeal to all lovers of Thackeray. 

Though Thackeray's novels are his most important 
writings, he was an essayist of distinction, at his best in 
The English Humourists; and some of his poems, such as 
The Cane-Bottomed Chair, are among the best verse of 
their kind. All through his w^orks, moreover, — even in 
the bitterest scenes of Vanity Fair, — one feels the kindly 
presence of the author, whose lines in The End of the 
Play were not far from a statement of his own ideal: 

Go, lose or conquer as you can; 
But if you fail, or if you rise, 
Be each, pray God, a gentleman. 

GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880). 

Another great Victorian novelist was Mary Ann Ev- 
ans, who wrote under the name of George Eliot. 

Life. George Eliot was born at Arbury, Warwick- 
shire, on November 22, 1819. Here and at Nuneaton, 
where she went to school, she saw the life she later so 
vividly described in many of her books. After her 
mother's death in 1836, household cares in a not very 
sympathetic family occupied much of her time, but she 
studied a great deal — especially religious questions. 
Her first literary work, in fact, was in the religious field. 
She began to write as early as 1840, but her first impor- 
tant work was a translation of Strauss's Leben Jesu 



394 A History of English Literature 

(1846). Her first fiction was Amos Barton (1856), 
published in Blackwood's Magazine and later included in 
Scenes from Clerical Life. Adam Bede followed in 
1859 and met with tremendous success. In i860 came 
The Mill on the Floss, in 1861 Silas Marner, and in 
1862-3 Romola, These books, among her greatest, 

were written during 
periods of depression. 
At times she felt as if 
she should never see her 
way through ; and after 
Romola she wrote, " I 
began it a young 
woman, — I finished it 
an old woman." Writ- 
ing meant exhausting 
work to her; as in the 
case of Keats, " a virtue 
went away " from her 
into everything that she 
wrote. After Romola 
George Eliot's interest 
turned to poetry, and 
she wrote The Spanish Gypsy in 1868; while a further 
volume of verse, including Jubal, was published in 1874. 
But she kept at fiction, too, finishing Felix Holt in 1866, 
Middlemarch in 1872, and Daniel Deronda in 1876. 
Four years later she died from an attack of throat trouble. 
Works. A sentence of George Eliot's shows strik- 
ingly the character of her work: " When a subject has 
begun to grow in me, I suffer terribly until it has 




Copyright Photo. Emery Walker, London, E. C. 
GEORGE ELIOT 



The Victorian Age 395 

wrought itself out — become a complete organism." In 
other words, there is always development in her charac- 
ters. The characters of Dickens and Thackeray often 
change very little during the course of a whole book; 
that is, Fagin is always the same scheming Jew, Beatrix 
Esmond is always the same beautiful " leopard." Silas 
Marner, on the contrary, grows at first suspicious when 
he has been unfairly suspected and hounded out of Lan- 
tern Yard, and finally opens his heart again through the 
love of a little girl. Similarly, Tito Milema, a fine 
young Greek in Romola, goes from good to bad and 
from bad to worse as he develops the habit of concealing 
first little things, finally serious things, from his wife. 
In most of George Eliot's works similar examples are 
abundant. It must not be supposed, however, that these 
characters are the puppets of events over which. they 
have no control. In Silas Marner, for instance, it is 
Marner's miserly weakness that, quite as much as events, 
brings on his way of life. Some novelists picture their 
characters as bandied about by fate, by " the clutch of 
circumstance," others picture them as saved or ruined by 
their own strength or weakness; George Eliot combined 
the two forces, with masterly skill : the development of 
the story seems to bring about the growth of the char- 
acters, and yet the growth of the characters seems to be 
the cause of the development of the plot. In this w r ay 
she pictured a process that is life itself; and because she 
understood the intricate, interwoven influences, — love, 
work, habit, trivial things, — that cause change and 
growth in human beings, she wrote novels that must al- 
ways be interesting. 



396 A History of English Literature 

OTHER WRITERS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE. 

Besides the greatest names of the Victorian Age, there 
are almost literally countless others of sufficient impor- 
tance to receive considerable mention in a large book. 
One passes unwillingly over such novelists as Char- 
lotte Bronte, Charles Kingsley, Bulwer Lytton, 
Disraeli, Charles Reade, and Trollope, — to say 
nothing of authors who have won great fame by an out- 
standing book. 1 The same may be said for the poets — 
Mrs. Browning, Fitzgerald, Morris, Rossetti, and 
Edwin Arnold; for the scientists — Darwin, Spen- 
cer, and Huxley ; for the historians — Freeman, 
Green, Grote, Lecky, and Symonds; and for the es- 
sayists — Newman, Pater, Bagehot, and Leslie 
Stephen. Even after these names we might make an- 
other list, quite as long, of names almost as important. 
Here we shall have to content ourselves with three writ- 
ers, who, as the century recedes, seem more and more to 
deserve special mention. 

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) pos- 
sessed great skill in handling various verse-forms and 
in combining pleasant sounds. In addition, he had com- 
mand of a remarkable vocabulary. Technically, he was 
a great poet, one of the greatest in all English literature ; 
but his poetry is usually vague and sometimes meaning- 
less: its excellence lies almost wholly in its sound. Of 
his longer poems, Atalanta in Calydon (1864), modeled 
after the style of Greek drama, is generally considered 

1 Such as Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford, Hughes's Tom Brozvn, and 
Blackmore's Lorna Do one. 



The Victorian Age 397 

the best. Many of his shorter poems have great beauty, 
none more than Itylus, based on the old Greek story of 
Procne and Philomela. 1 A stanza from one of the 
choruses in Atalanta gives a good idea of the melodious 
charm of Swinburne's poetry: 

When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces, 
The mother of months in meadow or plain 

Fills the shadows and windy places 
With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain ; 

And the brown bright nightingale amorous 

Is half assuaged for Itylus, 

For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces, 
The tongueless vigil, and all the pain. 

George Meredith (1828-1909) came slowly into 
fame, but he is now recognized as one of the chief Eng- 
lish novelists, while his poems have warm, if compara- 
tively few, admirers. A great deal of his strength lies 
in his ability to draw subtle distinctions and in his pow T er 
of compressing his meaning into few words. Both of 
these qualities, of course, recommend him to a special 
class of readers rather than to the average man. His 
stories are developed almost wholly by the characters in 
them — that is, the strength and weakness of persons 
brings about the situations. Perhaps his most character- 
istic novel is The Egoist (1879), but Richard Fever el 
(1859) and Diana of the Crossways (1885) probably 
reach a wider circle of readers. 

1 Philomela, the nightingale, reproaches Procne, the " swallow- 
sister," for forgetting Itylus, her first-born. Notice the allusion to 
the same myth in the quotation from Atalanta. 



D 



98 A History oi English Literature 



R:—R7 Levis Stz zxsv 1^50-1894) is 
k:::vr: as a novel:?:, the au:h:r :: such feservedly popu- 
lar tales as Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), 
and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). He was a lover 
of romantic adventure, a man who understood out-of- 
d: Mrs and had the secret :: perpetual youth in his heart: 

""" ^ ana he e:::ers ::::o his 
svries wi:h 5 vol: zes: 

a::d :-li readers vi:h 
hi:::. A large par: :: 




:•:::. :: 
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ing the world cheerful, 
consuming hatred of sul 

pressed i:: :he li::le poe:: 



Sevens: :: s success _;v 
::: his rover aver lan- 
guage a::: ::: his simple 
ge::er:vs ::a:::re — tv-; 
qualities which are re- 
vealed not only in his 
novels, but in his es say s 
a::d ;: :e:::s. Suffering 
most of his life, forced 
:■:: a:::::::: : : his heal::: 
first to abandon his na- 
tive Scotland and finally 
to banish himself to 
ha:: a vay. as :::e cr:::c 
■v v.- ell hoars the :: : r:::ai 
"■- :::!:: suppose, :: sy:::- 
ent most of his days mak- 
genuiue cheerfulness and 
s arc e-oeciallv veil ex- 



The Victorian Age 

If I have faltered more or less 
In my great task of happiness ; 
If I have moved among my race 
And shown no glorious morning face; 
If beams from happy human eyes 
Have moved me not ; if morning skies, 
Books, and my food, and summer rain 
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain : — 
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take 
And stab my spirit broad awake; 
Or, Lord, if too obdurate I, 
Choose thou, before that spirit die, 
A piercing pain, a killing sin, 
And to my dead heart run them in. 



399 



THE PRESENT DAY. 

Towards the close of the nineteenth century, a new age 
undoubtedly began. It has hardly yet reached its full- 
ness, however ; perhaps 
the only " central idea " 
that can at present be 
discerned is indepen- 
dence, a tendency of 
many writers to defy 
tradition ; but this very 
feature implies a di- 
versity which we, in 
the midst of it, may not profitably attempt to sum up 
in a few phrases. In historical and critical waiting, 
for instance, men have been inclined to discard tra- 
ditional formulas, such as the writers of Arnold's time 
used in making their judgments, and to appraise history 
and literature, not as they should be, but as they are. 




THE MANSE, COLINTON, WHERE STEVEN- 
SON PASSED MUCH OF HIS BOYHOOD 



400 A History of English Literature 

This frankness, however, is not an unmixed blessing, for 
it sometimes brings with it an impulse to be extraordinary 
at all costs. 1 

Narrative writing, latterly, has been undergoing great 
changes. Though the Victorian type of novel has been 
continued by Thomas Hardy, who first attracted notice 
with Far from the Madding Croud (18741, and by 
William De Morgan, in such novels as Joscpli Vance 
and Alice for Short, the tendency has been to concen- 
trate on social problems which produce striking, dra- 
matic situations. This type is seen to advantage in such 
novels as H. G. Wells's Tono Bungay and Marriage. 
It would be absurd., however, to assume that the " prob- 
lem novel " is the dominant type when such different 
kinds of stories as those of Barrie, Coxax Doyle, W, 
J. Locke, and Arnold Bennett, to say nothing of a 
host of others, reveal the variety in present-day fiction. 
Much fiction, furthermore, is now in the form of the 
" short story," largely developed by Stevenson after 
French models and eagerly taken up on both sides of 
the Atlantic. Few have worked in this field better than 
Rudyard Kipling, well known in his Many Inventions, 
The Day's Work, and other collections. 2 

One of the most noticeable features of modern times 
is the revival of the drama. Here, as in fiction, conti- 

1 This love of the bizarre may be abundantly observed in the writ- 
ings of G. K. Chesterton, who, however, has done a great deal, in 
his less fantastic moments, towards rousing his readers to honest 
opinions. 

- It should be noted that much of the best modern fiction in 
English is by Americans, especially Henry James. \Y. D. Howells. 
Marion Crawford, and Edith YYharton, 



The Victorian Age 401 

nental writers have had a great influence : the " problem 
play," following Ibsen, is possibly more familiar than 
the " problem novel." As fiction, however, has not been 
limited to one type, so the drama has invaded nearly 
every kind of life and is peculiarly fitted to express the 
intense, dramatic situations of a busy, realistic age. 
Wilde, Pinero, Barrie, Shaw, and Galsworthy are 
the most prominent writers of modern prose plays that 
both act and read well. An interesting development in 
the drama has been the Irish revival, under Yeats, 
Synge, and others. Many of the Irish plays are in 
verse; and some English poets, notably Stephen Phil- 
lips, have tried their hand at dramatic verse. 

The majority of good modern verse, however, is lyric, 
though recently Alfred Xoyes in his romantic epic 
Drake and John Masefield in such narratives as the 
Dauber have proved that long poems can still find a pub- 
lic. Besides the above, prominent names among recent 
English poets are William Watson, Francis Thomp- 
son, Henry Newbolt, A. E. Housman, and Rudyard 
Kipling. Of these Kipling is the only one who, so 
far, seems quite secure against oblivion. His verse has 
a vividness and a vigor which have been imitated in vain 
by the majority of his contemporaries. A good exam- 
ple of his style, as well as a sort of summary of the prac- 
tical, business-like age which he represents, is the last 
part of " England's Answer " in The Seven Seas: 

Now must ye speak to your kinsmen and they must speak to 

you, 
After the use of the English, in straight-flung words and few. 
Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways, 



402 A History of English Literature 

Baulking the end half-won for an instant dole of praise. 
Stand to your work and be wise — certain of sword and pen, 
Who are neither children nor Gods, but men in a world of men. 



CONCLUSION. 

Looking back over the whole history of our literature, 
we realize its great variety probably more than any- 
thing else. For convenience we group men into periods, 
and we may even try to group all the periods into one 
literature, but we are constantly amazed by the mere 
number of different thoughts and emotions that our 
literature expresses. If we think only of chief names, 
— such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Johnson, 
Wordsworth, Tennyson, — we cannot help wondering 
at the wealth of material, not only from the point of 
view of quality, but from that of diversity. The more 
we study, the more w r e wonder at the fullness and per- 
sistence of life in the Anglo-Saxon race. This persist- 
ence of life, this constant re-birth of genius, should 
reassure us, as we look back, that English literature is 
not merely a thing of the past, but of the present and 
future — a living thing, carrying noble and imperish- 
able traditions. 



The Victorian Age 



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406 A History of English Literature 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

[Note. Selections from the chief works of nineteenth cen- 
tury authors are so numerous and so accessible that in most 
cases only a standard edition is cited.] 

LITERATURE. Macaulay. Life and Letters, 2 vols., by 
Trevelyan (Harper), ranks with Lockhart's Scott. A good 
briefer biography is by Morrison (English Men of Letters Se- 
ries). Works, 8 vols., edited by Lady Trevelyan (Longmans). 

Browning. Life, by Sharp (Great Writers Series) ; also 
by Chesterton (English Men of Letters Series). The Cam- 
bridge Edition (Houghton Miffllin) is a good one-volume edi- 
tion of Browning's complete poems. Corson's Intrduction to 
the Study of Browning's Poetry (Heath) is very useful. 

Tennyson. Life, by Lyall (English Men of Letters Series). 
Poems, complete in the Globe Edition (Macmillan). See also 
Dowden's " Tennyson and Browning " in Studies in Literature 
(Scribner). 

Dickens. The standard life is by Forster, 2 vols. (Scrib- 
ner). See also Chesterton's Charles Dickens (Dodd, Mead). 
One of the best editions of the novels is the Gadshill Edition, 
38 vols. (Scribner). 

Thackeray. Life, by Trollope (English Men of Letters Se- 
ries). Works, ed. by Anne Thackeray Ritchie, in the Bio- 
graphical Edition, 13 vols. (Harper). 

Carlyle. A good short life is by Garnett (Great Writers 
Series). Works, Centenary Edition (Scribner). See also 
MacMechan, " Introduction " to Heroes and Hero- Worship 
in the Athenceum Press Series (Ginn). 

Ruskin. Life, by Harrison (English Men of Letters Se- 
ries). See also Ruskin's autobiography, Praeterita. Works, 
Brantwood Edition, 20 vols. (Longmans). 

Arnold. Life, by Paul (English Men of Letters Series). 
Works, 14 vols. (Macmillan). 



The Victorian Age 407 

Eliot. Life, by Leslie Stephen (English Men of Letters 
Series). Works, Standard Edition, 21 vols. (Blackwood). 

Stevenson. Life, by Balfour, 2 vols. (Scribner). Works, 
Biographical Edition, 25 vols. (Scribner), 

Swinburne's Poems are published, in 6 vols., by Harper. 
Select Poems in- the Belles Lettres Series (Heath). 

Meredith's Works are published, in 18 vols., by Scribner. 

The works of other Victorian writers are easily accessible, 
though not always in cheap editions. The better short poems 
are included in many anthologies, such as Manly's English Poe- 
try (Ginn), The Oxford Book of Verse (Clarendon Press), 
Century Readings (Century), and, especially, Stedman's Vic- 
torian Anthology (Houghton Mifflin). 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

Macaulay's History, Vol. I; Essays on Frederick the 
Great, Clive, Bacon, Johnson, Milton, Addison ; Lays of 
Ancient Rome. 

Browning's Cavalier Tunes; The Lost Leader; How they 
brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix; Evelyn 
Hope; Love Among the Ruins; A Toccata of Galuppi's; 
De Gustibus; Home Thoughts, From Abroad; Home 
Thoughts, From the Sea; Saul; My Star; By the Fire- 
side; The Guardian-Angel; Incident of the French Camp; 
The Last Ride Together; The Pied Piper of Hamelin; 
The Flight of the Duchess; The Grammarian's Funeral; 
Childe Roland; Fra Lippo Lippi; Andrea Del Sarto; Abt 
Vogler; Rabbi Ben Ezra; Prospice; The Ring and the 
Book; Herve Riel; Pheidippides; Epilogue to Asolando. 

Tennyson's The Dying Swan; The Lady of Shalott; 
The Miller's Daughter; The Palace of Art; The Lotus- 
Eaters; Ulysses; Tithonus; Locksley Hall; Locksley 
Hall Sixty Years After; The Day-Dream; Sir Galahad; 
" Break, Break, Break " ; Enoch Arden ; The Brook ; 
songs in The Princess; Ode on the Death of the Duke of 
Wellington; The Charge of the Light Brigade; In Me- 



408 A History of English Literature 

mori am ; Idylls of the King (especially "The Coming of 
Arthur," " Gareth and Lynette," and " The Passing of Ar- 
thur"); The Revenge; Tiresias; To Virgil; The Making 
of Man ; and Crossing the Bar. 

Dickens's Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Tale of Two 
Cities, Bleak House, Dombey and Son, Pickwick, and 
Christmas Carol. 

Thackeray's Henry Esmond, The Newcomes, Vanity Fair, 
The English Humourists. 

Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-Worship; Sartor Resartus; 
French Revolution (selections) ; Essay on Burns. A good 
introductory idea of Carry le may be gained from the selections- 
in Little Masterpieces (Doubleday Page). 

Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies; Crown of Wild Olive; " St. 
Mark's " in Stones of Venice. 

Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum ; Forsaken Merman ; Philo- 
mela; Scholar-Gypsy; Dover Beach; Rugby Chapel; The 
Future; and the essays on Translating Homer, Words- 
worth, Byron, and Heine. 

Eliot's Silas Marner; Mill on the Floss; Romola. 

Stevenson's Treasure Island; David Balfour; Master of 
Ballantrae; "A Lodging for the Night" (in New Arabian 
Nights); " Aes Triplex" (in Virginibus Puerisque) ; Let- 
ter to Father Damien; The Song of Rahero. 

Meredith's Diana of the Crossways; Richard Feverel; 
The Egoist. 

A useful list for other Victorian writers would include the 
works listed in the Chronological Table for this chapter, 
with the addition of such short well-known poems as are found 
in Manly's English Poets (Ginn) or in the Century Readings 
(Century). 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. McCarthy, The Epoch of 
Reform (Epochs of Modern History), and History of our own 
Times, 2 vols. (Harper). Oman, England in the Nineteenth 
Century (Longmans), covers the ground well. For the liter- 
ary history: Saintsbury, History of the Nineteenth Century 



ER 



6011 



HISTORICAL CHART OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 



ANGLO-SAXONS (449-1013) 



PLANTAGENETS 
(1154-1399) 



S3S5 



TUDORS 
(1485-1603) (1603- 



STUARTS 
■1714) 



500 1600 



HOUSE OF HANOVER 
(1714- 



Ceedmo n C> 
Bede 
Beowulf" 



glo-Saxqn Chronicl 



Langland 
Wiclif 



MIDDLE ENGLISH 



eare Addiso; 

Milton Fieldin g y£\ 



Bunyar 
Dryde 



Dickers 

Goldsmith^ I Ruskin 



Tennyson 
Browning 



W ordswort h 
Scott 

PeQuincey 



Meredith 
Swinburne 



MODERN ENGLISH 



T^^TT", -—^r^T I «-d the changes in la™ during ^t-dfth and .hir.en.h cen.une, made «he An* 

*** '«» .nd^^ *& ™£™ £f £| JS^ff adXfoT^No^an Congest I 



The Victorian Age 409 

Literature (Macmillan) ; Beers, English Romanticism in the 
Nineteenth Century (Holt) ; Dowden, Studies in Literature 
(Macmillan). See also special chapters in books recommended 
on p. 433. 

POETRY AND FICTION. Novels dealing with mid-cen- 
tury problems are: Kingsley's Yeast and Alton Locke, Eli- 
ot's Silas Marner and Felix Holt, and Dickens's Oliver Twist, 
Nicholas Nickleby, and Bleak House. Good poems to read 
in conjunction with the century's history and developments are: 
Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington; Mrs. 
Browning's The Cry of the Children; Edwin Markham's The 
Man with the Hoe; Henley's England, my England; Newbolt's 
Vital Lampada, Kipling's Seven Seas and Five Nations (se- 
lections), and Noyes's Wine Press. 



APPENDIX A 
LITERARY FORMS. 

It is impossible to distinguish exactly the different classes 
of literature. This is due largely to the fact that most liter- 
ature is not written with a view to classification ; but, even if it 
were, there are so many possible classifications and the border 
between two classes is so indefinite that careful distinction would 
fill a volume. Here we can speak of only the main character- 
istics of the chief classes. 

CLASSES OF POETRY. 1 

i. NARRATIVE. There are four main classes of narrative 
poetry: ballad, epic, romance, and tale. 

(i) The Ballad is a short, simple narrative. It deals 
usually with a local hero, such as Robin Hood, and with a local 
incident, such as the Cheviot fight. One of the oldest kinds 
of poetry, it was at first in the hands of the common, " unlet- 
tered " people; most early ballads were traditional and oral; 2 
and so the first English ballads that we possess date from about 
the fourteenth century, though they must have been preceded by 
a long line of forgotten ballads. Originally connected with song, 
the ballad often has more lyric than narrative interest. In 
modern times the name is used to cover almost any short story 
in verse, as in Kipling's Ballads. 

1 There is so much controversy about what constitutes poetry and 
what prose that we adopt here the only " workable " distinction : that 
poetry is literature in verse-form. In so far as such qualities as 
imagination and emotion are " poetic," much prose, of course, is 
poetic, and vice versa, much poetry is prosaic. 

2 For a discussion of ballad origins see p. 64. 

410 



Literary Forms 411 

Ballads flourished chiefly in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies, though they continued through the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth. Good examples of the old ballads are the Robin Hood 
collection, Sir Patrick Spens, The Hunting of the Cheviot, 
Johnie Armstrong, Sir Hugh, The Three Ravens, Edward, 
The Wife of Usher's Well, and Thomas Rymer. 1 During the 
later seventeenth and the eighteenth century the ballad almost 
disappeared from written literature, 2 but soon after the pub- 
lication of Percy's Reliques (1765), it became a very popular 
form, especially with Scott, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. Since 
then it has continued to be a favorite form for narrative verse. 
Tennyson's Revenge and Kipling's Ballad of East and West 
are good examples of modern ballads. 

(2) The Epic is a long narrative poem dealing with the real 
or mythical deeds of national heroes. Famous examples are 
Homer's Iliad and the English epic, Beowulf. Milton's Para- 
dise Lost is written in imitation of classical epics, but deals, 
of course, with powers of heaven and hell, not with national 
figures. The distinction between the ballad and the epic may 
be understood by considering A Gest of Robyn Hode, a col- 
lection of ballads dealing with the adventures of the Sher- 
wood outlaw. If Robin Hood had become a great national 
figure, the various stories of the Gest might have been gathered 
together in one long poem ; but he remained a popular, local 
hero, and the Gest remained a collection of ballads. In con- 
trast, the stories about Achilles, or Beowulf, though their primi- 
tive form is now lost, must have been first sung in something 
like ballad form; but as their hero grew in the national imag- 
ination, the stories would have grown in importance and dig- 
nity, till finally they were welded together and rewritten in epic 
form. This kind of poetry, in keeping with the subject, always 
employs stately verse and serious language. 

Good examples of English epics, besides Beowulf and Para- 

1 All of these ballads are to be found in any good collection. 

2 Carey's Sally in our Alley and Gay's 'Twas When the Seas Were 
Roaring are well-known exceptions. 



412 A History of English Literature 

dise Lost, are Keats's Hyperion, Arnold's Sohrab and Rust-am, 1 
and Noyes's Drake. 

(3) The Romance. A long narrative in which the interest 
centers in adventures that are usually fabulous or imaginary, 
and the hero of which acts from the motive of love or knightly 
service rather than of heroism. It is impossible to draw a clear 
line between the epic and romance. The great British epic, 
for instance, the Arthurian story, has come down to us chiefly 
in romances, because it was popular in the days of knighthood. 2 
A good rough distinction is that the epic was written for the 
lord's hall; the romance, for the lady's bower. 

Besides the mediaeval romances (see Chap. II), the most 
famous examples in English are: Spenser's Faerie Queen, 
Scott's Lady of the Lake and Marmion, and Tennyson's Idylls 
of the King. The word, however, is loosely used to cover such 
short romantic tales as Keats's St. Agnes' Eve and Browning's 
The Flight of the Duchess. 

(4) The Tale. This word is even more vaguely used than 
" romance." It is most accurately applied to short narrative 
poems such as those in Chaucer's Canterbury Talcs or in Long- 
fellow's Talcs of a Wayside Inn, but it covers, too, practically 
all narrative poetry that may not be classed under ballad, epic, 
or romance. 

2. THE LYRIC. Originally, poetry that was sung rather 
than chanted, as was the epic. The emphasis, therefore, falls 
on emotion rather than on story; and, finally, on the emotion 
of the individual author or of the author speaking for others. 
In epic and ballad the subject is not only the main thing, but 
the author is practically negligible : we know nothing of Homer 
from what he says in the Iliad. In the lyric, on the other hand, 
the author is often quite as important as the subject. From 
its nature the lyric is necessarily a short poem. Naturally, too, 

1 Properly, an " episode " from the great Persian epic, Shah 
Nam eh. 

2 Though Layamon's Brut, the first English rendering of it, is an 
epic. 



Literary Forms 413 

it takes countless expressions : the intense personal feeling of 
Shelley in O world, O life, time ; the love of nature in the 
songs of Burns; the light fancy of Marlowe's Come, live with 
me and be my love ; national courage in Campbell's Ye mariners 
of England; stately beauty in Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn; 
and dignified sorrow in Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the 
Duke of Wellington. 

The Elizabethan Age, the early seventeenth century, and the 
nineteenth century are particularly rich in lyric poetry, whether 
in song or in the more stately forms of sonnet and ode. An 
introductory study should include at least Marlowe, Shake- 
speare, Sidney, Lyly, Jonson, Herrick, Herbert, Milton, Dry- 
den, Gray, Burns, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tenny- 
son, Brow r ning, and Swinburne. In addition, such lyrical old 
ballads as The Earl of Murray should be read. 
3. THE DRAMA. The essential difference between a drama 
and a story lies in the fact that the drama is written to be 
acted and spoken. A narrator may supply whatever descrip- 
tion and explanation he sees fit; the dramatist, on the other 
hand, must say whatever he has to say through the persons in 
his drama. Yet a story which is told entirely by conversation 
is far from a drama ; the conditions of the stage have forced 
on the acted story a compactness and a swiftness, and, above 
all, a necessity of action, which make the drama a special kind 
of literature. 

The two chief divisions of drama are tragedy and comedy. 
The former " presents a mortal will at odds with fate " ; work- 
ing up to a conflict, the tragedy is completed by the overthrow 
of the chief figure. Comedy presents a conflict which is only 
apparent; the difficulties are solved and the play ends happily. 
The purpose of tragedy, 1 as Aristotle says, is to excite pity 
and terror; of comedy, to amuse. Both, if they deserve their 
names, should " hold the mirror up to nature." When they 
do not, they are, respectively, melodrama and farce, Melo- 

1 The word tragedy has come to be loosely used for almost air- 
play that has a sad ending. 



414 A History of English Literature 

drama, since it usually springs from a mistaken idea of what 
is terrible, is perverted tragedy; but farce, in which situations 
and characters are purposely made unreal for humorous effect, 
has a logical place on the stage. Farce, however, is usually in 
prose. Among the forms of poetic drama should be noted the 
masque,, a play in which dancing, music, and elaborate cos- 
tumes have important parts. A good example is Milton's 
Comus (see p. 184). Dramatic also is opera, but the literary 
element, except in Wagner's German operas, is almost wholly 
subordinate to the musical. 

English poetic drama flourished chiefly in the late sixteenth 
and early seventeenth centuries. 1 Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jon- 
son, Beaumont, Fletcher, Dekker, Massinger, Ford, and Web- 
ster are the chief names. Poetic drama in the late seventeenth 
century, the best of which was written by Dryden, had success 
in its own day, but is little read now; and the same may be 
said for later instances, such as Addison's Cato, Coleridge's 
Remorse, and Browning's Strafford. Modern poetic drama is 
usually written to be read and is often too lyric or didactic to 
make " good acting." Such plays are Shelley's Prometheus 
Unbound and Byron's Manfred; while a still wider departure is 
to be found in Browning's " Dramatic Monologues " — such as 
Rabbi Ben Ezra and Abt Vogler, — dramatic only in the sense 
that they have the directness of a person actually speaking. 
4. THE IDYLL. The word, literally, means " little picture." 
Originally the idyll was a sort of dramatic form, as in the 
Idylls of Theocritus and the Eclogues of Virgil, but even there 
the descriptive element, particularly of pastoral scenes, is the 
chief thing. The name, therefore, is most commonly applied 
to descriptive pastoral poetry. Good examples are Milton's 
L' Allegro and // Penseroso and Burns's The Cotter's Satur- 
day Night. 2 Frequently portions of a poem are idyllic, as parts 
of Byron's Childe Harold. 

1 For the history of the early English drama, see p. 102. 

2 Tennyson's Idylls of the King, though they are a series of " little 
pictures," are more nearly romances than idylls. 



Literary Forms 415 

5. DIDACTIC POETRY. Poetry which has instruction for 
its chief aim. Goldsmith's Deserted Village and Gray's Elegy, 
for example, though the former is idyllic and the latter is both 
idyllic .and lyric, are primarily didactic : they draw a moral, 
teach a lesson. Frequently a poem which is chiefly narrative 
plainly states its moral, as Coleridge's Ancient Mariner; in 
which case it may be said to have a didactic ending, though of 
course it cannot be classed as didactic poetry. Pope's Essay on 
Criticism is a good example of poetry which has the single pur- 
pose of instruction. 

A favorite form of didactic poetry is satire — holding a man 
or a condition up to ridicule, as in Kipling's Islanders; but sa- 
tire is often written to amuse, or for its own sake, — as in 
Pope's lines on " Atticus " in the Epistle to Arbuthnot, — and 
then it should be classed separately, not under didactic poetry. 
Good examples of satire are Butler's Hudibras, Dryden's Absa- 
lom and Achitophel, and Pope's Dunciad. 

CLASSES OF PROSE. 

1. NARRATIVE. The three main classes of prose narrative 
are the romance, the novel, and the short story. 1 

(1) The Romance. The prose romance of the Middle Ages 
differed from the poetic romance (see p. 412) only in that it 
was not metrical. Malory's Morte DartJiur is a good example. 
With the growth of the novel, however, in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, there came a further development of romance in the so- 
called romantic novel. It followed the novel in its careful con- 
struction of plot centering in a crisis, but it continued to deal 
with unreal adventures. In the nineteenth century the name 
came to be applied to almost any novel which dealt mainly with 
adventure ; the adventure no longer had to be unreal but merely 
unusual, out of the ordinary reader's experience. Scott's Wav- 
erley Novels, Charles Reade's Cloister and the Hearth, and 

1 History and biography are largely narrative, but they are so 
much else that they are here put in a special class. 



416 



A History of English Literature 



Stevenson's Treasure Island are good examples of the romantic 
novel. 

(2) The Novel. Between the romantic novel and the novel 
there is no clear distinction ; indeed, any long prose story is 
called a novel nowadays. The essential difference, however, 
between the novel and the romance is that the novel deals with 
situations which are real or might be real. It usually tends. 
moreover, to select and arrange its material in a definite plot, 
in contrast to the loose succession of events in the old romance. 
Sometimes, as in Dickens's Tale of Tieo Cities, development 
of the story depends almost wholly on plot : sometimes, as in 
Thackeray's The XezeeoDies, almost wholly on the characters: 
sometimes, as in George Eliot's Silas Manier, on the interde- 
pendence of the two. The novel, then, is usually realistic, based 
on fact rather than on imagination : and this distinction ap- 
plies even to the modern romantic novel, which deals with char- 
acters who. though out of our experience, seem as if they would 
be real could we actually know the remote conditions in which 
they are pictured. 

The novel, as a special form of literature, begins with Rich- 
ardson and Fielding in the middle of the eighteenth century. 
Important names in the development of this form of fiction are 
Smollett. Sterne. Goldsmith. Jane Austen. Scott. Bulwer Lyt- 
ton. Charles Reade, Charles Kingsley, Dickens, Thackeray, 
George Eliot, Trollope, Meredith, and Stevenson. 

(3) The Short Story. A short story differs from a novel 
in that its brevity forces on it the treatment of a single inci- 
dent. If there is a plot, it must have only one main point, and 
much preliminary matter must be omitted. The ending, simi- 
larly, must be swift; the incident finished, there is no call, as 
often in the novel, for an elaborate conclusion. Again, charac- 
ter may not be developed as in the novel: a single phase or 
condition of a character must be portrayed ; the author begins 
with the characters as they are. not in introductory stages 
prophetic of what they are going to be. A short story, for ex- 
ample, might picture a person's change from stinginess to gener- 



Literary Forms 417 

osity, but, though it might show him first stingy and then 
generous, the emphasis would have to be on the change or on 
a sudden, particular influence which wrought the change. The 
novel, on the other hand, might picture the gradual disap- 
pearance of his stinginess, under various cumulative influences. 
If the short story should attempt to do this, it would be merely 
a compressed novel — and probably unconvincing. 

Though there have been short tales in all times, the wide 
popularity of the short story, as a special form of prose fic- 
tion, is comparatively modern. It is well illustrated by the 
works of Stevenson and Kipling. 

2. PROSE DRAMA. 1 In the time of Shakespeare prose was 
frequently used in comedy, especially in the more farcical 
scenes, and was sometimes used in tragedy (cf. the grave-dig- 
gers in Hamlet). Until the eighteenth century, however, 
poetry was the chief style for drama of all sorts ; then it gave 
place to prose in comedies (cf. Sheridan's Rivals and Gold- 
smith's She Stoops to Conquer). Poetry, on the other hand. 
continued the style for tragedy until comparatively recent times 
(cf. the plays of Browning and Tennyson). Now, however, 
though there is occasionally a poetic drama, as Stephen 
Phillips's Paolo and Francesca, practically all plays are writ- 
ten in prose (cf. the plays of Shaw, Pinero, Galsworthy, and 
Barrie). 

3. THE ESSAY. Narrative and dramatic writings aim pri- 
marily to create characters or to tell a story through created 
characters; whatever is said to the reader is part of the story 
or play. An essay, on the other hand, talks directly to the 
reader; the author is as present as he is in lyric or didactic 
poetry. From its name, which means " trial," the essay does 
not suggest an exhaustive treatment of a subject; it is merely 
a short comment, either touching on some particular phase or 
covering the whole subject in only a general way. Bacon 
calls it " certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than 

1 For a definition of drama, see p. 413, under Poetry. 



41 8 A History of English Literature 

curiously." 1 The purposes of the essay naturally may be many : 
it may aim to amuse, or to instruct, or to prove a point, or 
to stir emotions, etc. The forms that it takes may be equally 
variable : it may be an explanation, as Tyndall's essay on 
Glacier Ice; or an argument, as almost any editorial; or a brief 
statement of the author's views, as Bacon's essay on Truth; 
or a narrative, as Lamb's essay on Roast Pig; and sa on. Es- 
says are frequently classified as formal, in which the writer 
employs a formal, dignified style, usually in the third person, 
and discusses a serious subject; and familiar, in -which the au- 
thor takes the " gentle reader " into his confidence and writes 
in an easy, conversational tone. The formal essay is gener- 
ally intended to instruct or inspire; the familiar, to amuse, — 
or, if to instruct, only by gentle satire. A good example of 
the first is Macaulay's Essays; of the second, Lamb's Essays 
of Elia. An essay may be in verse, as Pope's Moral Essays, 
but prose is naturally better suited to it. 

Roger Ascham, in the middle of the sixteenth century, was 
the first to consider English a fit language for prose essays, 
but he did not apply that name 2 to his writings, and Bacon's 
Essays, fifty years later, were the first great writings of the 
kind in English. From then on the essay grew slowly in im- 
portance till the newspaper and the magazine made a special 
opportunity for it. The Tatler and the Spectator of the early 
eighteenth century were followed by many similar essays, and 
in the nineteenth century, as prose grew in importance, many 
prominent writers entered the field. Lamb, Hazlitt, Carlyle, 
Macaulay, Ruskin, Thackeray, Arnold, and Stevenson are some 
of the chief names. 

4. SPECIAL CLASSES OF PROSE. An Oratiox is practi- 
cally an essay written to be spoken on a special occasion. 
Good examples are Milton's Areopagitica and Burke's Speech 
on Conciliation. History and Biography are also akin to es- 

1 In minute detail. 

2 The word was first used in its literary sense by Montaigne in 
1571. 



Literary Forms 



419 



says, — in fact, both of them are often written in essay form ; 
but they are frequently longer, that is, they may attempt to 
cover the whole subject minutely, and they differ from many 
essays in that their purpose is rarely literary — they are writ- 
ten to give information. In addition, most history and biog- 
raphy, are largely narrative. Among the histories which have 
received distinction as permanent literature should be noted 
especially Carlyle's French Revolution and Macaulay's History 
of England, while BoswelFs Life of Johnson and Lockhart's 
Life of Scott enjoy the same prominence as biography. Simi- 
lar in purpose to history and biography are writings on sci- 
ence, philosophy, etc. Such writings, however, are too various 
to be classed under one head ; the word Treatise comes nearer, 
perhaps, than any other. A quite separate class of prose is 
Letters, which are written not only without literary purpose, 
but also without the intention of publication. They are there- 
fore much more informal and personal than any other form of 
writing. Among writers whose letters have become permanent 
literature are Gray, Cowper, Horace Walpole, Byron, Lamb, 
Carlyle, Meredith, and Stevenson. 



SUMMARY. 



ri. Narrative. 



Classes 

of 
Poetry^ 



-(1) The Ballad. 

(2) The Epic. 

(3) The Romance 

(4) The Tale. 



2. The Lyric 

3. The Drama 



•(! 



(1) Tragedy. 

(2) Comedy. 
4. The Idyll. 

^5. Didactic Poetry, Satire. 



420 A History of English Literature 



Classes 

of 
Prose " 



i. Narrative. 

2. The Drama. 

3. The Essay. 

4. Special Classes. 



f(i) The Romance. 
J (2) The Novel. 

[(3) The Short Story. 



(1) The Oration. 

(2) History and Biography, 

(3) The Treatise. 

(4) Letters. 



APPENDIX B 
ENGLISH VERSE. 

i. ACCENT. A verse, or single line of poetry, is distin- 
guished from prose by its rhythm, the accent recurring at reg- 
ular intervals throughout the line. Thus, in the line 

The stag at eve had drunk his fill, [Scott 

the accent falls on every second syllable. 

In Old English verse the accent was determined by stress; 
that is, by the force with which the accented syllable was 
pronounced, not by the length (or quantity) of that syllable. 
This characteristic has remained the underlying principle of 
English verse, but ever since the French influence in Chaucer's 
time there has been an uncertain element of quantity in Eng- 
lish poetry. For instance, in the line 

You '11 hear the long-drazvn thunder, [Kipling 

the length of the unaccented syllable drawn makes a great 
difference in the effect of the line, as may be readily seen by 
changing the verse to 

You '11 hear the thunder booming. 
Quantity, then, does play a part in English verse, but stress is 
the controlling factor, so much so that the number of unac- 
cented syllables is comparatively unimportant. 1 

2. KINDS OF METRICAL FEET. Each foot, or division, 
of verse contains one accented syllable. The name springs from 
the fact that in early poetry, which accompanied dancing, the 

1 For instance, in the lines 

Break, break, break, 

On thy cold grey stones, O Sea! [Tennyson. 

the three syllables of the first line are exactly equivalent to the seven 
syllables of the second. 

421 



422 A History of English Literature 

accented syllable was identical in time with the putting down 
of the foot. With such an accented syllable goes the unac- 
cented syllable (or two), which corresponds to the raising of 
the foot. Thus the line. 

But come, | thou god dess fair j and free. [Milton 

has four feet, each consisting of an unaccented syllable 
(marked * ) followed by an accented syllable (marked ' ). 

In English verse there are four kinds of feet in common use : 
(i) The iambus (-'), as: 

W / W / W / U / 

But come,, | thou god dess fair | and free." [Milton 

(2) The axapest (« - /). as: 

The Assyr ian came down like the wolf | on the fold. 

[Byron 

(3) The trochee (' *> ) a as : 

/ W / w / W / W 

Should you | ask me j whence these stories. 

[Longfellow 

(4) The dactyl ('--). as : 

This is the forest pri meval : the | murmuring | pines and 

W • W 

the j hemlocks. [Longfellow 

To break the monotony a trochaic foot is often introduced 
into an iambic line, as : 

* W W ' ^ w w w * w / 

When to the ses'sions of sweet si lent thought; 

[Shakespeare 

while iambus and anapest are frequently substituted for each 
other, as : 

WW / w • w w / w / w 

When the hounds | of spring | are on win ter's traces. 

[Swinburne 
Furthermore, the pyrrhic ( w w ) and the spondee (' * ), two 

classical feet, which depend more on quantity than on stress, 
are used to good effect in the middle of a line., though neither 
is ever used in English as the regular, recurring foot. The 
third foot of the iambic line, 

/w w/^ w u / (- * 

When to j the sessions of j sweet silent thought, 

[Shakespeare 



English Verse 423 

is a pyrrhic; if it were iambic, we should have to put an ab- 
surd emphasis on the word of. A good example of a spondee 
is the third foot of the line, 

\1 f W / / / w / W / 

And where | the wind's | feet shine | along ] the sea. 

[Sivinburne 
Coleridge, in Metrical Feet, written to teach his son Derwent v 
illustrates each kind of foot in the one poem: 

Trochee j trips from | long to | short; 

From long to long in solemn sort 
/ / / ' / / 

Slow Sponjdee stalks; | strong foot; | yea ill able 

/WW / WW /ww/ww 

Ever to | come up with | Dactyl tri j syllable. 

\l ■» w / w / w / 

Iam|bics march | from short | to long; — 

With a leap | and a bound | the swift Anjapests throng, 

3. METER. The meter, or measure, of a verse is deter- 
mined by the number of feet in that verse. Thus dimeter 
means two-measure : 

The trum| pet's loud clanlgour 1 

Excites I us to arms ; [Dryden 

trimeter means three-measure : 

w / w / w / 

And all | their echoes mourn; [Milton 

tetrameter means four-measure : 

w/u/w / w/ 

The stag | at eve | had drunk | his fill ; [Scott 

pentameter means five-measure : 

W / W / W /WW w / 

The qual|ity | of mer|cy is | not strained; 

[Shakespeare 
hexameter means six-measure : 

w/w p w / w / w / 

A shield I ed scut|cheon blushed | with blood | of queens j 

and kings. [Keats 

1 At the end of an iambic or anapestic line there is frequently an 
extra unaccented syllable, while trochaic and dactylic verses are 
often without the last light beat. 



424 A History of English Literature 

4. MELODY. Besides the variations in the arrangement of 
metrical feet, important factors in producing the melody, or 
pleasing sound, of verse are the pause (or cesura), rime, 1 
and stanza. 

(1) Cesura. Though the pause is not so important in 
English verse (stressed) as in Latin verse (quantitative), 
every line, if properly read, should have a slight pause some- 
where in the line — varying in good poetry according to the 
sense and the arrangement of the feet. The cesura in the 
following verses is marked by double lines ( 1 1 ) : 

Yet all experience ] | is an arch wherethro' 

Gleams that untravell'd world, 1 1 whose margin fades 

Forever and forever 1 1 when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, 1 1 to make an end, 

To rust unburnish'd, 1 1 not to shine in use ! 

[Tennyson 

In the first and third of these lines the pause, with no addi- 
tional delay for punctuation, is of course briefer than in the 
others. Exactly how long the reader should pause in a given 
line is largely a matter of ear; but constant practice, with 
careful attention fixed on the author's meaning and on the 
metrical rhythm, will help any one who is not entirely lack- 
ing in a sense of time. 

(2) Rime. Rime is the similarity of sounds, as knee — sea. 
It is most commonly met at the ends of verses, as in the lines: 

By shallow rivers, to whose falls 

Melodious birds sing madrigal; [Marlowe. 

but it is often introduced into the middle of a line, as in : 

And sweep through the deep. [Campbell. 

This kind of rime, which depends on the similarity of vowel 
and final consonant, came into English verse from the French, 

1 Rime. Sometimes spelled rhyme — a spelling which came from a 
confusion of the word rime with the word rhythm. Both spellings, 
rime and rhyme, are now in good use. 



English Verse 425 

who developed it from assonance, or similarity of vowel sound ; 
whatever the consonant. Thus roaming and floating make 
good assonance, but do not rime as we now understand the 
word. Assonance, however, though it is no longer used at the 
ends of lines, is still a most important feature of good verse, 
Notice, in the following verses, the effect gained by the re- 
curring and u sounds in the accented syllables : 

Who gave you your invulnerable life, 

Your strength, your speed, your fz^ry, and your joy, 

Unceasing thwnder and eternal foam ? " [Coleri dge 

A more common aid to melody is alliteration, 1 or the repeti- 
tion of similar consonant sounds. An obvious example is : 

the long-backed breakers croon 
Their end/ess ocean Zegends to the Zazy, locked lagoon. 

[Kipling 

More pleasant, because not excessive, is the alliteration in : 

WieZder of the ^tate/iest measure ever moulded by the lips of 
man. [Tennyson 

(3) A stanza is a group of lines arranged in a fixed order 
of rimes. Thus the following four verses make a stanza : 

It is an ancient mariner, 

And he stoppeth one of three. 

" By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, 

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?" [Coleridge 

It will be noticed that the first and third lines are iambic 
tetrameter unrimed and that the second and fourth are iambic 
trimeter rimed. The form of a stanza is determined by these 
two factors — the meter and the rime. A new stanza begins 
with a repetition of the same metrical arrangement. 2 
5. KINDS OF VERSE. The verse of a particular poem 

1 " Beginning-rime," the only kind of rime in Anglo-Saxon verse. 

2 Less than four verses are rarely called a stanza. 



426 A History of English Literature 

can always be indicated by naming the predominating foot and 
the number of feet in the line, as " Trochaic Tetrameter," 
" Iambic Pentameter,'' etc. Certain combinations, however, have 
been used so much and so well that they have been given special 
names. The chief of these are : 

(1) Ballad Staxza. Four iambic verses, of four and three 
feet alternately, rimed on the second and fourth verses. 1 The 
above quotation under stanza is an example. Ballad stanza, 
however, is the simplest, least conventional of verse-forms and 
is frequently varied, by internal rime, by rime on the first and 
third lines, as well as on the second and fourth, and an extra 
verse or two. For instance : 

With throats unslaked, with black lips baked. 

We could nor laugh nor wail : 

Through utter drought all dumb we stood ! 

I bit my arm. I sucked the blood. 

And cried. A sail ! a sail ! [Coleridge 

Ballad stanza took its name, of course, from the old ballads. 
It has ever since been the favorite form for popular poetry and. 
except for the eighteenth century, it is found extensively from 
Chaucer to the present day. (See Appendix A. p. 410.) 

(2) Octosyllabics. Iambic tetrameter riming in couplets 
(4. 4, aa). as : 

But. O sad virgin, that thy power a 

Might raise Musaeus from his bower, a 

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing b 

Such notes as, warbled to the string, b 

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek. c 

And made Hell grant what Love did seek. c 

[Milton 

Octosyllabics were very much used in the metrical tales and 
romances of the Middle Ages. Chaucer used them in The 

1 Hereafter we shall designate the feet by a number and the rime- 
scheme by letters. Ballad stanza, then, would be : 4. 3. 4, 3. for the 
meter ; and a, b, c, b, for the rime. 



English Verse 427 

Romaunt of the Rose, The Hons of Fame, and The Dethe of 
Blaunche; we find them popular in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries (the best-known examples are Milton's L } Alle- 
gro and 77 Penseroso), and again used with great success in 
such poems as Scott's Lady of the Lake and Byron's Mazeppa. 

(3) Heroic Verse. Iambic pentameter, the measure most 
commonly used in long serious poems, as dactyllic hexameter 
was the " heroic " verse of the ancients. 

Though any unrimed verse is blank verse, the name is now 
usually applied in English only to unrimed heroic verse. Tech- 
nically, a single iambic pentameter line which does not rime is 
blank verse, as : 

I lay my knife and fork across my plate. 

To blank verse that deserves the name, however, there is a 
kind of indefinite stanza, impossible to define because it is al- 
ways variable; and just a succession of unrimed iambic pen- 
tameter lines are not good blank verse. A given line in the 
middle of the " period," or variable stanza, may be almost im- 
possible to scan by itself, but together with the other lines it 
should " go " all right. Compare the following passage, in 
which the ninth line, 

" In the beginning how the heavens and earth," 

has no metrical value unless it is read as part of the period of 
sixteen lines to which it belongs ; and notice how the group 
comes round, at the end, to regular iambic pentameter : 

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top 
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed 
In the beginning how the heavens and earth 



428 A History of English Literature 

Rose out of Chaos : or, if Sion hill 

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 

Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 

Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, 

That with no middle flight intends to soar 

Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. [Milton 

Blank verse was first used by Surrey (1517-1547) in his trans- 
lation of part of the JEucid. It was not successfully used, 
however, till Marlowe's Tamburlaine (1587). Soon after, it 
became the regular meter for the dramatic poetry of Shake- 
speare and his contemporaries : and Milton, in the middle of 
the seventeenth century, championed it as the proper measure 
for serious poetry. " in longer works especially." Eclipsed dur- 
ing the closed couplet days of Dryden and Pope, it came to its 
own again towards the end of the eighteenth century, and in 
the nineteenth has been much used, if not always well : best 
perhaps by Keats in Hyperion and by Tennyson in The Idylls 
of the King. 

Heroic verse is frequently rimed alternately (abab) in 
stanzas of four lines : for example : 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, a 

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, b 

The plowman homeward plods his weary way, a 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. b 

[Gray 

Rimed in couplets, it is usually called the heroic couplet, but 
this name applies properly only to the " closed " couplet of the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries : the heroic verse of Chau- 
cer's Canterbury Tales, though rimed in couplets, is not the 
heroic couplet (see p. 284). 

Heroic verse rimed in couplets has been popular ever since 
Chaucer. For a while, just before Marlowe's influence was 
felt, it was the regular meter of the drama and was used much 
by Shakespeare in his early plays. Under Dryden and Pope, 



English Verse 429 

who followed French models, it was written with a precision 
and a balance that gave it the special name cf the " heroic 
couplet." Again, but with more freedom, it was used effectively 
by Keats in Endymion. 

Heroic verse rimed in other ways than in couplets is so 
common that a few instances must suffice : Chaucer's seven 
line " Rime Royal " (ababbcc) in his Troilus; the " Ottava 
Rima " (abababcc), well illustrated by Byron's Don Juan; the 
alternate rime of Gray's Elegy (abab) ; the arrangement of Fitz- 
gerald's Ritbdiydt of Omar Khayyam (aaba) ; and two forms, 
" Spenserian Stanza " and the " Sonnet," especially mentioned 
below. 

(4) Spenserian Stanza. Nine lines, the first eight of 
which are iambic pentameter, while the last is iambic hex- 
ameter. The rime-scheme (ababbcbcc) may be seen from the 
following selection : 

His prayer he saith, this patient, holy man; a 

Then takes his lamp, and riseth from his knees, b 

And back returneth, meagre, barefoot, wan, a 

Along the chapel aisle by slow degrees : b 

The sculptur'd dead, on each side, seem to freeze, b 

Emprison'd in black, purgatorial rails : c 

Knights, ladies, praying in dumb orat'ries, b 

He passeth by ; and his weak spirit fails c 

To think how they may ache in icy hood and mails. c 

[Keats 

The Spenserian Stanza is named after Spenser, who, in his 
Faerie Queen, was the first to use it. It was not used much 
again till the Romantic revival, towards the end of the eigh- 
teenth century. Byron.'s Childe Harold, Keats's Eve of St. 
Agnes, Shelley's Adonais, and the introductory verses to Scott's 
Lady of the Lake are the best examples in nineteenth century 
verse. 

(5) The Sonnet. Fourteen iambic pentameter lines ar- 
ranged either in three quatrains with a couplet (abab, cdcd, 



430 A History of English Literature 

efef, gg) or in two parts, an octave (abba, abba; sometimes 
abba, cddc) and a sestet (variously rimed; commonly cdecde 
and cdcdcd). The first of these forms is called the "Shake- 
spearean Sonnet/' because made popular, though not invented, 
by Shakespeare. An example is: 

That time of year thou may'st in me behold a 

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang b 

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, a 

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang, b 

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day c 

As after sunset fadeth in the west, d 

Which by and by black night doth take away, c 

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. d 

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire e 

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, f 

As the death-bed whereon it must expire, e 

Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. f 

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more 

strong, g 

To love that well which thou must leave ere long, g 

[Shakespeare 

The other form is the " true " sonnet, following the model of 
the Italian Petrarch. An example is : 

It is not to be thought of that the flood a 

Of British freedom, which, to the open sea b 

Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity b 

Hath flow'd, " with pomp of waters, unwithstood," — a 

Roused though it be full often to a mood a 

Which spurns the check of salutary bands,— b 

That this most famous stream in bogs and sands b 

Should perish; and to evil and to good a 

Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung c 

Armoury of the invincible Knights of old : d 

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue c 

That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold d 



English Verse 431 

Which Milton held. — In everything we are sprung c 
Of Earth's first blood, have titles manifold. d 

[Wordsworth 

The sonnet was first used in English by Wyatt and Surrey, 
whose poems were published in 1557, and was due to the Ital- 
ian influence that came with the Renaissance (see p. 83). It 
flourished, especially in the hands of Sidney, Spenser, Shake- 
speare, and Milton, during the late sixteenth and early seven- 
teenth centuries, but, like many other forms, was eclipsed by 
the heroic couplet during the late seventeenth and the eigh- 
teenth centuries. Revived by the Romantic poets, it has beer 
well written in the nineteenth century, especially by Words- 
worth, Keats, and Rossetti. 

(6) Mixor and Irregular Forms. Besides the well-known 
kinds of verse, there are many minor forms, such as roundel, 
rondeau, triolet, which have not been very widely used. In 
addition, there are innumerable irregular forms, used chiefly 
in lyric poetry, especially in such poems as Wordsworth's Ode 
on the Intimations of Immortality. These arbitrary stanzas are 
of course too variable to be classified. 



2. 







SUMMARY 


Accent 


f(i) Stress 
1(2) Quantity 


Chief 
Feet 


Metrical 


'(1) Iambus 

(2) Anapest 

(3) Trochee 

(4) Dactyl 

r (i) Dimeter 
(2) Trimeter 


Meter 


- 


(3) Tetrameter 

(4) Pentameter 

(5) Hexameter 



432 A History of English Literature 



4. Melody 



5. Kinds of Yerse^ 



f(i) Cesura 

fa. End-rime 

(2) Rime J b. Assonance 

[c. Alliteration 

(3) Stanza 

'(1) Ballad Stanza 

(2) Octosyllabics 

fa. Blank Yerse 

(3) Heroic Verse < b. Heroic Couplet 
[c. Other Forms 

(4) Spenserian Stanza 
a. Shakespearean 



(5) The Sonnet 



b. Petrarchan 



(6) Minor and Irregular Forms 



GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

[Note. In the following lists are given (i) books which 
cover a wider field than the subject of one particular chapter 
and (2) a re-statement of the chief convenient collections.] 

HISTORY. 

1. Gardiner's Students' History of England (Longmans). 

2. Green's History of the English People, 4 vols. (Harper). 

3. Traill's Social England, 6 vols. (Putnam). 

4. Ploetz's Epitome of Universal History (Houghton Mifflin), 

5. Baedeker's Great Britain (Scribners). 

HISTORY OF LITERATURE AND CRITICISM. 

1. The Cambridge History of English Literature (to be com- 

pleted in 14 vols.; to date 11 vols, have been issued) 
(Putnam). This work, by many different authors, is a 
monument of modern scholarship. It contains excellent 
bibliographies. 

2. Chambers' Cyclopcedia of English Literature, 3 vols. (Lip- 

pincott). A very useful work. 

3. Garnett & Gosse: An Illustrated History of English Lit- 

erature, 4 vols. (Macmillan). Profusely and handsomely 
illustrated, but printed on such thick paper that the treat- 
ment, even in four bulky volumes, is not very full. 

4. Ten Brink's Early English Literature, 3 vols. (Holt). Still 

one of the best accounts. 

5. Jusserand's Literary History of the English People, from 

the origins to the Renaissance, 2 vols. (Putnam), and 
From the Renaissance to the Civil War (Putnam). 
Valuable as history, and very interestingly written. 
433 



434 A History of English Literature 

6. Taine's History of English Literature, 4 vols. (Holt). A 

series of brilliant essays, which, in spite of the author's 
weakness of interpreting from insufficient or highly col- 
ored facts, remains indispensable. 

7. Gummere: The Beginnings of Poetry (Macmillan). 

8. Courthope: History of English Poetry, 4 vols. (Macmil- 

lan). 

9. Ward: History of Dramatic Literature to the Death of 

Queen Anne, 3 vols. (Macmillan). 

10. Raleigh: The English Novel (Scribner). 

11. Cross: Development of the English Novel (Macmillan). 

12. Ryland: Chronological Outlines of English Literature 

(Macmillan). 

13. Brewer: Reader's Handbook (Lippincott). 

14. Moulton: Library of Literary Criticism, 8 vols. (Malkan). 

15. Saintsbury: A History of English Criticism, 3 vols. (Dodd 

Mead). 

16. Boynton : London in English Literature (University of 

Chicago Press). 

BIOGRAPHY. 

1. Dictionary of National Biography, 63 vols. (Macmillan). 
The standard work. Indispensable for a thorough study 
of the subject. 
•2. Allibone's Dictionary of Authors, 5 vols. (Lippincott). 

3. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia of Proper Names 

(Century). 

4. English Men of Letters Series (Macmillan). One short 

volume to each author. About 55 vols. 

5. Great Writers Series (Scott). One short volume to each 

author. Occasionally preferable to the English Men of 
Letters Series, but usually not so good. About 30 vols. 

6. Hinchman and Gummere : Lives of Great Writers 

(Houghton Mifflin). Contains in one volume 33 short 
biographies of the chief writers from Chaucer to Brown- 
ing. 



General Bibliography 435 

LANGUAGE. 

1. Lounsbury's History of the English Language (Holt). 

2. Anderson's A Study of English Words (Am. Book Co.) 

is an excellent brief account. 

3. Greenough and Kittredge : Words and Their Ways in 

English Speech (Macmillan). 

VERSIFICATION. 

1. Saintsbury: Historical Manual of Prosody (Macmillan). 

2. Gummere: Handbook of Poetics (Ginn). 

3. Symonds: Blank Verse (Scribner). 

4. Alden: English Verse (Holt). 

COLLECTIONS OF PROSE AND VERSE. 

1. Ward: English Poets, 4 vols. (Macmillan). 

2. Craik: English Prose, 5 vols. (Macmillan). 

3. Manly: English Poetry (Ginn). 

4. Manly: English Prose (Ginn). 

5. Oxford Book of Verse (Clarendon Press). 

6. Pancoast: Standard English Poems (Holt). 

7. Pancoast: Standard English Prose (Holt). 

8. Morley: Library of English Literature, 5 vols. (Cassell). 

9. Century Readings (Poetry and Prose in one vol.) (Cen- 

tury). 
10. The Globe Edition (Macmillan). 
n. The Cambridge Edition (Houghton Mifflin). 

12. The Oxford Poets (Clarendon Press). 

13. A Century of Essays, Everyman's Library (Dutton). 

14. A Book of English Essays (Holt). 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

1. Encyclopedia Britannica, nth ed., 29 vols. (Cambridge 
University Press). Covers the whole field of knowledge 
and is of course the standard work for general refer- 
ence. 



436 A History of English Literature 

2. Gayley: Classic Myths (Ginn). 

3. Bartlett: Familiar Quotations (Little Brown). 

4. Greene: An Historical Chart of English Literature 

(Princeton, N. J.). 



A HISTORY OF AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 




VIEW OF MINUTE MAX, CONCORD BRIDGE 



A HISTORY OF AMERICAN 
LITERATURE 

CHAPTER I 

EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE 

Before 1840, a date which seems very modern in Eng- 
lish literature, the actual amount of American writings 
was very small. During the seventeenth century the 
population itself was of course sparse and scattered; 
even as late as 1800 the whole country counted fewer in- 
habitants than several of the States do to-day; and these 
few, about five millions, lacked, until railroads were de- 
veloped, easy means of communication. In England and 
France, the small area, with London and Paris as na- 
tural centers easy of access, made the growth of a literary 
tradition possible and obvious. There was an audience 
for Dryden and Moliere. More important yet, the early 
settlers of America, many of them Puritans, were not 
interested in literature and the arts ; and, if they had been, 
they enjoyed little time to write : they were almost wholly 
occupied with establishing their existence in unbroken 
country. Great literature, to be sure, does not depend 
on mere size or on leisure; but it does depend on national 
cohesion and an audience; and it must be realized, if we 

439 



44° A History of American Literature 

are to keep our perspective, that the scattered and busy 
settlers of America, and their descendants for upwards 
of two centuries, produced very little literature of any 
kind and almost no great literature. What they did 
write, however, just because they were doing important 
things, has special value as a record of the life they es- 
tablished in the Western hemisphere. In their writings 
we find the signs of what gradually grew to be funda- 
mental in American character; they were the pioneers 
of a great nation, a fact which sooner or later should 
mean a great literature. 

Another point which must be kept in mind is that a 
great part of early American literature, as indeed of 
later American literature, was American only in the sense 
that it was written in the Western hemisphere. Writers, 
living in small, isolated communities on the Atlantic sea- 
board, took their literary manners and most of their lit- 
erary ideals, as they took their language, from England. 
Until the period of the Revolution there was no articu- 
late " America," with a national " idea " to express; and 
until Mark Twain and Walt Whitman there was no such 
thing as a distinctively American style. To understand 
American literature, then, we must distinguish clearly 
three kinds of writing: (i) that which, though it has 
little merit as literature, is an important record of co- 
lonial life; (2) that which is distinctively American in 
style as well as in thought; and (3) that which, though it 
is not always distinctively American, contains the best 
of what we call American literature. The first group 
may fairly be represented by Cotton Mather ; the second, 
by Mark Twain; and the third, by Washington Irving. 



Early American Literature 441 

THE COLONIAL PERIOD (1607-1765) 

\ It has been noted that the settlement of New England 
took place during the Puritan seventeenth century. New 
York was Dutch at that time, but the settlements along 
most of the Atlantic seaboard as far south as Georgia 
were English; and the settlers there, like all English- 
speaking people, were strongly affected, as New Eng- 
enders were dominated, by the spirit of the Puritan 




NEW YORK IN 1 667 
From Valentine's Manual 



seventeenth century. 1 Virginia royalists, like English 
royalists, did not escape the sterilizing influence that 
Puritanism had on literature as an art. In addition, men 

1 See Puritanism in England, pp. 172-174. 



44 2 A History of American Literature 

were busy felling forests, tilling the soil, and making 
peace or war with the Indians. 

It must be kept in mind, however, that these early set- 
tlers either were born in Elizabeth's reign or were the 
children and grandchildren of men and women born in 
that reign. They spoke " the tongue that Shakespeare 
spake " ; their chief reading was in the Bible, product 
of vigorous Elizabethan English. More important still, 
they possessed the energy and resourcefulness of Eliza- 
bethans, and these virtues, backed by a Puritan sense of 
duty, especially in New England, formed in time the 
basis of that character which sustained the patriots of 
the Revolution and which has given America its chief 
political and social heritage. Separated from the old 
world by the Atlantic Ocean, moreover, the early set- 
tlers and their descendants preserved the virtues of Eliza^ 
bethan and Puritan to a degree impossible in England, 
dominated as it was by French influences in the times of 
Dryden and Pope. Socially and politically this was 
probably a benefit, but it did not help colonial literary 
style. For, note as we may the Elizabethan language 
of American literature two generations after that 
language had passed from English style, we must note 
also that the greater part of colonial writing lacked the 
directness and lucidity which developed, under the French 
influence, in the great prose of Dryden, Addison, and 
Swift. 

The first Colonial literature was written by English- 
born, English-educated authors. They were primarily 
men of action, leaders and governors in the New World. 



Early American Literature 443 




EARLY VIEW OF HARVARD COLLEGE 

Among these should be noted the Virginia settler, Cap- 
tain John Smith (1580-1631); William Bradford 
(1590-1657), a Mayflower immigrant and governor of 
Plymouth Colony, author of the History of Plimoth 
Plantation; John Winthrop (1588-1649), governor 
of Massachusetts Bay Colony, author of an interesting 
journal; Richard Mather (1 596-1669), also author 
of a valuable journal; and Roger Williams (1605- 
1683), governor of Rhode Island and author of the 
famous Bloody Tenet. Of all the histories and journals, 
Captain John Smith's The General History of Virginia 
is the most entertaining, full as it is of vivid descriptions 
of Indian customs and of adventures with the redskins, 
including the story of Powhatan and Pocahontas/) The 
following may serve* as an example : 

So marching towards their houses, they might see great 



444 A History of American Literature 

heaps of corne : much adoe he had to restrain his hungry 
souldiers from present taking of it, expecting as it hapned 
that the salvages would assault them, as not long after 
they did with a most hydeous noyse. Sixtie or seaventie of 
them, some blacke, some red, some white, some party-coloured, 
came in a square order, singing and dauncing out of the 
woods, with their Okee (which was an Idoll made of skinnes, 
stuffed with moss, all painted and hung with chaines and 
copper), borne before them: and in this manner, being well 
armed with Clubs, Targets, Bowes, and Arrowes, they charged 
the English, that so kindly received them with their muskets 
loaden with Pistoll shot, that downe fell their God, and divers 
lay sprauling on the ground : the rest fled againe to the woods, 
and ere long sent one of their Ouiyough-Kasoucks to offer 
peace, and redeeme their Okee, 



G 



i Almost alone among the New England Puritans, Roger 
Williams, in The Bloody Tenet, championed freedom of 

worship and leniency toward heretics; but his writings, 
unlike those of his English contemporary, Milton, have 
little life outside the controversy of his day. 

Xo account of early American literature would be com- 
plete without mention of the first Xew England poet, 
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672); but poetry flourished 
even less among the Puritans of New England than it 
did among those of the Mother Country. The poems of 
Anne Bradstreet, with their lifeless, conventional phrases, 
as those of Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705), 
wordy, laboriously religious, gave little promise of fu- 
ture greatness in American poetry, though Wiggles- 
worth's Day of Doom enjoyed a tremendous popularity 
among New England Puritans. It " was the solace of 
every fireside/' says Lowell, " the flicker of the pine knots 



Early American Literature 445 

by which it was conned perhaps adding a livelier relish 
to its premonitions of eternal combustion." 

Cotton Mather (1 663-1 728) was one of the most 
important of the earlier Colonial writers. Born in Bos- 
ton, where he lived and died, he was the first American- 
born author to fill a large place in the annals of his 
country. Yet his literary fame has generally been be- 
yond his merits. Grandson of Richard Mather, son of 
Increase Mather, who became president of Harvard Col- 
lege, he represented illustrious stock and was in fact the 
leader, intellectually and spiritually, of his time. But 
his style, fantastic, verbose, and pedantic, makes the 
greater part of his four hundred publications dull read- 
ing. In the days of Swift and Addison, when English 
prose style had become simple, graceful, and clear, Cotton 
Mather retained the elaborate, heavy manner of English 
prose before Dryden and the French influence. His de- 
scriptions, especially of the Salem witchcraft, are some- 
times vivid, but the mere bulk of his work and his im- 
portance in his community have lent his writings greater 
renown than they deserve. His chief work, Magnalia 
Christi Americana or Ecclesiastical History of New 
England (1702) is valuable chiefly because it gives a 
faithful picture, in spite of historical inaccuracy, of the 
state of mind of New England Puritans in the seven- 
teenth century. 

Another important theologian and Puritan writer was 
Jonathan Edwards (1 703-1 758). Unusually strict in 
church discipline, even for a Puritan, he was forced to 
resign his pastorate at Northampton, Massachusetts, and 



446 A History of American Literature 




JONATHAN EDWARDS 



for a while lived as a missionary among the Indians of 
the Berkshire Hills. Just before his death he was elected 
president of Princeton College. Edwards was the great- 
est of the American theologians 
of the Colonial period; he was an 
eloquent preacher; and his writ- 
ing, though not so varied as 
Mather's, had a directness and 
power that Mather rarely at- 
tained. His chief philosophical 
work was The Freedom of the 
Will (1754). Stern as he was 
in calling sinners to repentance, 
he was an idealist, too, who held 
that all " real existence " is " con- 
stantly proceeding from God, as light from the sun." 
Indeed, it was just because his theology carried inspira- 
tion as well as admonition that he was able, where Mather 
had failed, to quicken a dying Puritanism and to begin 
the revival called " The Great Awakening," a revival 
which found its chief champions in the English Wesleys^ 
The character of what may be called the better side ci: 
the gospel of Edwards is revealed in the following sen- 
tences : 

God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed 
to appear in everything; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the 
clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, 
and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often 
used to sit and view the moon for a long time; and in the 
day spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold 
the sweet glory of God in these things; in the meantime sing- 



Early American Literature 447 

ing forth, with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator 
and Redeemer. 

But the picture is not complete without the other side of 
his theology, the old Puritanism still strong in him : 

O Sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in. 'Tis 
a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of 
the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that 
God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against 
you as against many of the damned in hell. 

/in contrast to the New England authors, who were 
men of education and position, John Woolman (1720- 
1772), the New Jersey Quaker, was born and lived in 
humble circumstances. His simple kindliness, too, stands 
out in contrast to the stern wavs of men who thought 
that they were serving God by persecuting Quakers and 
burning Salem witches. In unadorned simplicity, his 
style of writing is in keeping with his doctrines; like the 
English of Bunyan, it is read w 7 ith ease by successive gen- 
erations. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about 
Woolman was his attitude towards his fellow-men : in 
his views on slavery, his tender care for the oppressed, 
and his freedom from religious rancor, he was a century 
ahead of his'time^ The following sentence from his 
Journal is a goocTexample of both his thought and his 
style : 

These are the people [i. e. negroes] by whose labor the 
other inhabitants are in great measure supported, and many 
of them in the luxuries of life; these are the people who have 
made no agreement to serve us, and who have not forfeited their 
liberty that we know of; these are the souls for whom Christ 



448 A History of American Literature 

died: and for our conduct towards them we must answer be- 
fore Him who is no respecter of persons. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (1765-1810) 

The " fierce spirit of liberty/' which Burke noted in 
the colonists in 1775, not only had a firm foundation in 
the character of the first settlers, who came to America 
for political and religious freedom, but was augmented 
by the self-reliance which the hardships of the new life 
brought into being. With this self-reliance went a bold- 
ness, a love of nature, and a quick resourcefulness. Iso- 
lated at first, the colonies gradually developed, in spite 
of their dislike for each other, these important character- 




- -1 ' -^ai . 



VIEW OF INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA 

istics more or less in common ; not very noticeably till 
the issue between them and England became clearly 
defined, but clearly and rapidly when they found that 
they had a common cause. Furthermore, on account of 
their isolation, they retained what Englishmen had in 
large measure lost, their familiarity with the Petition of 
Right and the Bill of Rights, and a sturdy, stubborn in- 
sistence on their liberties, as the political heirs of Eliot, 



Early American Literature 449 

Hampden, and Pym. Though undoubtedly the general 
European movement, which culminated in the French 
Revolution and which was social quite as much as po- 
litical, had a considerable influence on America, the 
American Revolution in a singular degree was confined 
to the issue of the English during the seventeenth cen- 
tury : " the consent of the governed " — that is, the right 
of those who pay taxes to say how the taxes shall be 
spent. If the English government had not been both 
stupid and stubborn and if men like Jefferson had not 
realized that a larger issue, that of the equality of man, 
was involved, the colonies might not at this time have 
separated themselves from the Mother Country. 

It is important to bear in mind this almost wholly po- 
litical character of the American Revolution if we would 
understand the literature of the period. It was in 
France, England, and Germany that a great revolution- 
ary literature burst into flower. The yearnings and 
visions which appeared in the poetry of Europe found 
almost no counterpart across the Atlantic. Instead, there 
was for the most part a clear-headed prose, eloquent at 
times, but significantly prose. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790) 

Franklin was the greatest writer of the Revolutionary 
period, though he is not conspicuous as a writer of revo- 
lutionary doctrines. He represents primarily the sturdy 
common-sense that was characteristic of so many eight- 
eenth century Englishmen; he lived a large part of his 
life before the fight was on; and he is associated with the 



450 A History of American Literature 

Revolutionary period chiefly because he played so im- 
portant a role, politically, in the formation of the United 
States. 1 Clear thinker and able writer as he was, more- 
over, Franklin's chief powers were in science and states- 
manship. 

Life. Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, one of 
seventeen children. The son of a poor tallow chandler, 
he had almost no regular education, but he early devel- 
oped a fondness for reading, he was both industrious 
and observant, and so he grew into an educated man. 
At the age of seventeen he ran away to Philadelphia, 

where he spent the greater part 
of his life. As a boy he had 
learned the printer's trade, 
which he followed with suc- 
cess till he was forty-two. He 
himself defined leisure as 
" time for doing something 
useful"; and so well had he 
used his leisure that, when he 
retired from the printing busi- 
ness, with a competence, he 
found himself an important 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN . . 

public citizen and, soon after- 
wards, a scientist of world-wide reputation. In 1729 he 
had begun the Pennsylvania Gazette ; two years later he 
founded the Philadelphia library; in 1732 he began the 
publication of Poor Richard's Almanac; in 1737 he be- 

1 An interesting comparison may be developed between the leaders 
of the American Revolution and the demagogues, fanatics, and the- 
orists of the French and Russian Revolutions. 




Early American Literature 451 

came the postmaster of Philadelphia; six years later he 
founded the American Philosophical Society and in 1751 
the academy which later became the University of Penn- 
sylvania; and in 1753 he was awarded the Copley medal 
for his discoveries in connection with electricity. In ad- 
dition to all this, he organized a fire department, fur- 
thered the establishment of a public hospital, and invented 
the Franklin stove. From now on he was constantly in 
the public eye. Colonial agent for Pennsylvania for six- 
teen years and commissioner to France for nine years, 
he spent a large part of his later life abroad ; but he was 
back to serve in the Continental Congress of 1775 and 
to act as one of the committee of five which in 1776 drew 
up the Declaration of Independence. With Jay and 
Adams he was a negotiator of the Paris treaty of peace 
with England in 1783; he served as President of Penn- 
sylvania from 1785 to 1788; and he was a delegate to the 
Constitutional Convention of 1787. 

During his later years Franklin wrote his famous 
Autobiography, which covers his life down to 1757. If 
to the story of hard work and common sense told by him 
is added the greatness of his life as a statesman, it is diffi- 
cult to think of any one who has lived a more competent 
or more useful life than Franklin. Time and again he 
saved delicate situations for the colonies by his shrewd 
wisdom ; and he is chiefly responsible for winning the 
French to the American side. On his death, in 1790, not 
only the American Congress, but the French National 
Assembly went into mourning. 



45 2 A History of American Literature 

Works. Practical common-sense, with a saving touch 
of humor, are the characteristics of Franklin's chief 
writings, Poor Richard's Almanac and the Autobiog- 
raphy. He was far removed from the early Puritan 
writers; his morality was based on wisdom rather than 
on a sense of eternal obligations; and he has therefore 
been accused by some of being too practical, too worldly. 
But it must be remembered that it takes a Franklin, as 
well as a Jonathan Edwards or a John Woolman, to make 
a world — especially an eighteenth century world ; and 
Franklin's writings, like his life, are valuable just be- 
cause they deal so successfully with a world of fact. 

Franklin's style is simple and graceful, unmarred by 
the tortuosities of much American writing of his day or 
by the heavy Latin periods that make dull reading of 
a great deal that the English authors of Johnson's time 
wrote. He himself says that he got most of his instruc- 
tion from reading Bunyan and Addison. The follow- 
ing sentences from a letter to General Washington show- 
not only the grace of Franklin's pen, but his tact and 
good sense in dealing with others : 

Philad a ., April 3, 1787— 
Dear Sir, 

I have often thought that the Number of People, who by 
Curiosity and the Admiration of your Character are drawn 
to call at Mt. Vernon, must be very troublesome to you, and 
have therefore generally declin'd giving any introductory 
Letters. But my Nephew M r . Jonathan Williams, who was a 
faithful and active Agent of the United States during the 
whole War, . . . being on his way to Richmond, and desirous 
of paying his Respects to you, I hope you will excuse my giving 



Early American Literature 453 

this Line of Information concerning him, which at the same 
time may express my best Wishes for your Health and Happi- 
ness, and Hopes of seeing you here at the Convention, being 
persuaded that your Presence will be of the greatest Impor- 
tance to the Success of the Measure. With sincere Esteem and 
Respect,- I am, Dear Sir, 

Your most obed. & most hum. Serv 1 , 

B. Franklin. 
His Excell y Gen 1 Washington. 

OTHER WRITERS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY 
PERIOD 

The most conspicuous American authors of the last 
quarter of the eighteenth century were, like Franklin, 
statesmen and men of action. Verse was written, 1 
but little of it can be called poetry. Emotions which 
might have found expression in poetry appeared more 
often in the impassioned oratory of such men as James 
Otis, the " flame of fire " ; Samuel Adams, vigorous and 
uncompromising patriot; and Patrick Henry, with his 
famous " Give me liberty or give me death! " George 
Washington (1732-1799) so far over-shadowed his 
authorship by his generalship and leadership as first Presi- 
dent that he is not always included among American 
writers; but it should not be forgotten that his Farewell 
Address is one of the most imposing state papers in 
American history. The excellence of the style of the 
Farewell Address, however, may not be credited wholly 
to Washington. Comparison of it with his other papers 
shows clearly that the dignified tone of the great address 

1 Notably by Dwight, Barlow, Trumbull, and Freneau. For fur- 
ther notice of Freneau, see p. 460. 



454 A History of American Literature 

owed much to Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), 

with whom Washington consulted in preparing it. Else- 
where, especially in his well-known Federalist papers, 1 
Hamilton revealed that he could write with both grace 
and vigor, and with an eloquence that suggests that of 
Burke. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), though his 
style lacked the simple directness of Franklin's and the 
eloquence of Hamilton's, wrote a great deal of excellent 
prose in his political papers. These he himself passed 
over, when he left directions that on his monument 
should be inscribed " Author of the Declaration of 
American Independence " ; but they should not be passed 
over by those who would understand the beginnings of 
American democracy. The following passage, from his 
First Inaugural (1801), carries a vivid message to the 
political reformers of to-day: 

Still one thing more, fellow-citizens, — a wise and frugal gov- 
ernment, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 
shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits 
of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the 
mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of 
good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of 
our felicities. 

But unquestionably Jefferson was right when he counted 
the Declaration of Independence his greatest work. Xo 
one will easily forget the author of a document which the 
world will never forget, 

1 Some of the Federalist papers were written by James Madison 
and John Jay. 



Early American Literature 455 

THE ROMANTICISTS (1810-1840) 

The great Romantic x movement which marked the lit- 
erature of Western Europe towards the close of the 
eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth 
found an echo in America. Except for political prose, 
which still felt the impulse of the Revolution, a great 
deal of the writing showed, in both subjects and style, 
the influence of English Romanticism. Under this in- 
fluence, American poetry and American fiction for the 
first time reached an excellence which demands more 
than passing comment. It is the period of Irving, Bry- 
ant, and Poe. 

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) first intro- 
duced, in Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleep Walker, 
the American flavor of adventures among Indians, but 
his books are impossible romances of the type made 
popular in England by Mrs. Radcliffe and William God- 
win. 

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) made better 
use of the Indian adventures in his justly famous novels, 
The Leather stocking Tales, of which The Last of the 
Mohicans (1826), is incontestably a great piece of 
writing. Besides the five " Leatherstocking " novels, 
Cooper's best romances are The Spy (1821), The Pilot 
(1824), and The Red Rover (1828). A good deal has 
been said in criticism of Cooper — his inability to depict 
women, his exaggeration of the virtues of Indians. But 
whatever his defects, Cooper somehow contrived to por- 

1 For a discussion of Romanticism, see pp. 280-285. 



456 A History of American Literature 

tray, as no one else has done, the adventure of the un- 
broken American wilderness. This he did with a power 
comparable to Scott's pictures of adventure in the Scot- 
tish Highlands. Still more, in " Leatherstocking " he 
created a great character, the American pioneer of the 
eighteenth century frontier, a brave, resourceful, admir- 
able figure, who has cast ever since a spell on the imagina- 
tions of American boys. Finally, he knew how to tell a 
tale, to hold the interest. His books were as widely read 
in England as in America ; and he is still read to-day all 
over the world. 

WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) 

Irving' s literary accomplishments were many. He 
wrote charming sketches of people and places ; he was a 
biographer and historian of ability ; he was a most success- 
ful writer of short tales; x he had a rich vein of genuine 
humor ; and he possessed an easy and graceful style. The 
world will especially remember him as the creator of 
Rip Van Winkle, but it will remember, too, the inimitable 
pictures of the Sketch Book, the entertaining and pic- 
turesque Conquest of Grenada, and the excellent Life of 
Goldsmith. 

Life. Born in New York City in 1783 of well-to-do 
parents, Irving had the opportunity of a good schooling, 
but, like Sir Walter Scott, he got his education chiefly 
from reading tales and travels. He never went to col- 
lege, but for a while he studied law. Again like Scott, 
he preferred travel and romance to his profession. At 

1 For a distinction between the " Short Story " and stories that 
are short, see Appendix, p. 416. 



Early American Literature 457 

fifteen he explored the region of Sleepy Hollow, and all 
through his youth he passed a great deal of his time in 
the mountains that border the Hudson Valley. The 
creations of " Diedrich Knickerbocker " were written out 




SUNNYSIDE, IRVING S HOME ON THE HUDSON 

of a very intimate knowledge of the New Netherlands 
and the quaint Dutch descendants. 

! Irving began his first successful literary work with a 
periodical which he called Salmagundi (1807-8). In 
the following year Knickerbocker's History of New York 
appeared; the authorship could not be long concealed; 
and Irving soon became famous in England as well as 
at home. In fact, Englishmen visiting America counted 
its two marvels Niagara Ealls and Washington Irving. 



458 A History of American Literature 

Irving travelled much abroad, for both business and 
pleasure, and served in the legations at Madrid and Lon- 
don from 1826 to 1832. Ten years later he went again 
to Spain as minister. The intervening years, as well as 
those after 1846, when he returned from Spain, he spent 
at " Sunnyside," Tarrytown on the Hudson, in his be- 
loved Sleepy Hollow. Here he died, in 1859, and he was 
buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery. 

The greater part of Irving's work was done before he 
settled at Sunnyside. The Sketch Book appeared in 
1 8 19; Bracebridge Hall, in 1822; the Tales of a Travel- 
ler, in 1824; the Conquest of Grenada, in 1829; and the 
Alhambra, in 1832. His chief publications during his life 
at Tarrytown were Crayon Miscellanies (1835) ; Life of 
Goldsmith (1849) » an( l Ltf e °f Washington (1855-59). 

Works. Except for his New York subjects, Irving 
was not strikingly American. He wrote a good deal 
while he was actually in England ; he rather affected kin- 
ship with English authors; and his style shows an in- 
timacy with the English literary tradition. As a matter 
of fact, this was a merit, since there was almost no 
American literary tradition. Just as Franklin before 
him had profited from following Addison, and Hamilton 
from following Burke, Irving drew from a large field of 
English predecessors. The great thing about his style, 
after all, is that it was his own; his models were thor- 
oughly assimilated. With a rich vocabulary and inimi- 
table humor, he grew, from an imitator, to be one of the 
creators of the English tradition. 

In his choice of subjects — his love of the quaint, the 
mysterious, and the absurd — , as in his profusion of 



Early American Literature 459 

language, Irving belonged essentially to the Romantic 
School. But his Romanticism, like that of Scott's, had 
something substantial and steady-going about it that 
set him off from the visionary dreamers of his time. 
His humor saved him from nonsense, but it also saved 
him from dulness. 

The best of Irving, seen in such stories as Rip Van 
Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, appears also 
in many of his other writings. He was particularly skil- 
ful in the humorous description of grotesque and pic- 
turesque characters. In Oliver Goldsmith he had a sub- 
ject which particularly suited his genius; in his picture 
of that " poor devil author " he wrote one of the great 
biographies of all time. The same skill is evident in 
his stories and sketches of English life, particularly in 
the Sketch Book. To this descriptive power, moreover, 
he added the ability, shown in the Tales of a Traveller 
as well as in Rip and other tales, to relate a story with 
absorbing interest. Naturally his power as a narrator 
cannot be shown in a brief quotation, but a few sentences 
from the description of " Van Twiller " may serve to 
reveal the skill in humorous description : 

He was exactly five feet six inches in height, and six feet 
five inches in circumference. . . . His body was oblong and 
particularly capacious at bottom; which was wisely ordered 
by Providence, seeing that he was a man of sedentary habits, 
and very averse to the idle labor of walking. His legs were 
short, but sturdy in proportion to the weight they had to sus- 
tain ; so that when erect he had not a little the appearance of a 
beer-barrel on skids. 



460 A History of American Literature 

THE POETS 

Early in the nineteenth century the first good Amer- 
ican poetry appeared. Philip Freneau (1752-1832) 
wrote a great many patriotic lyrics and satires in the 
time of the Revolution, but these are not nearly so well 
done as his later, shorter lyrics, such as The Indian 
Burying Ground, which show the beginnings of the mild 
Romanticism familiar in the English poetry of Cowper, 
Gray, and Collins. Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790- 
1867), famous for his Marco Bozzaris, suggests not only 
by his subject, 1 but by his poetic style, Byron and the full 
development of Romanticism. Joseph Rodman Drake 
(1795-1820), well known for his American Flag and 
The Culprit Fay, and Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), 
author of The Star-Spangled Banner, belong also to this 
period. American Romantic poets could not be ranked 
very high, however, if Bryant and Poe were not of the 
number. 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878) 

Bryant lived to such a great age that he is frequently 
associated in our minds with Longfellow and Whittier, 
but he was almost a generation older than they. He be- 
gan to write at an extremely early age, and he felt the 
rapture of Romanticism as later poets could not. He 
bears the distinction of being the first great American 
poet. 

Life. Bryant was born at Cummington, Massachu- 

1 On the death of Bozzaris, Byron took command of the Suliotes 
in the Greek war for independence, 1821-29. 




Early American Literature 461 

setts, in 1794, the son of a poor country doctor. His 
early life among the western hills developed in him an 
almost Wordsworthian fondness for nature, and his 
family's strong Puritan inherit- 
ances gave him an indelible rev- 
erence and " high seriousness." 
After a few months at Williams, 
he studied law and for a while | 
practiced it; but in 1825 he turned 
to editorial work in New York! 
City. Very poor, he had a hard 
struggle till he was past thirty, but 
in 1827 he became assistant editor 
of The New York Evening Post 
and two years later editor-in-chief, william cullen bryant 
This position he held till his death, and as editor of the 
Post he not only made the success of his paper, but raised 
the ideals of journalism throughout the United States. 

Most of Bryant's poetry was written before he was 
engrossed in newspaper work. His famous Thanatopsis 
(meaning "view of death") was chiefly written when 
he was seventeen or eighteen, and Richard Henry Dana, 
editor of the North American Review, when he read the 
poem in 181 7, refused to believe that the author was an 
iVmerican. Bryant's first volume, issued in 1821, con- 
tained several of his best poems, notably To a Waterfowl 
and The Yellow Violet, as well as Thanatopsis; and 
though it did not sell very rapidly, in the course of a few 
years it brought him a wide reputation. Later appeared 
such now famous poems as the Forest Hymn (1825). 



462 A History of American Literature 

The Evening Wind (1829), and To a Fringed Gentian 
(1829). Between 1866 and 1872 he translated Homer's 
Iliad and Odyssey. 

Works. Bryant's translation of Homer not only 
ranks high as a translation, but as blank verse. Some 
of his best other work is in blank verse, too, a measure 
peculiarly suited to the expression of his dignified and 
lofty idealism. No American has written better blank 
verse, and, with the possible exception of Keats and 
Wordsworth (at times) and, later, Tennyson, the same 
may be said of his English contemporaries. Unlike 
Wordsworth, moreover, he never wrote poor verse. 
The bulk of his poetry is very small, most of it is ex- 
cellent, and none is unworthy. 

As Bryant's early life — the life expressed in his 
poems — would lead us to suppose, the two great char- 
acteristics of his poetry are love of nature and a calm, 
Puritan seriousness. It is Massachusetts nature, too — 
the " rock-ribbed hills," the fields of corn, the bob-o -link 
singing in June. In " the melancholy days " of autumn 
he writes of American flowers — 

But on the hill the golden -rod, and the aster in the wood, 
And the yellow sun-flower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood. 

To a Waterfowl combines perhaps more perfectly than 
any of his poems this love of nature and reverence for 
the presence of God; but he reaches his greatest dignity 
in Thanatopsis, with its magnificent closing lines — 

So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, which moves 



Early American Literature 463 

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) 

Though Poe was contemporary, by birth, with the 
generation that filled the middle nineteenth century, his 
early death and his Romantic style place him with the 
earlier group. Yet no one belongs less with Bryant. A 
morbid and unhappy genius, Poe's affinities are rather 
with the English Romanticists associated with Shelley. 
But here, too, the association may not be carried too far ; 
in his short stories Poe was unique and far ahead of his 
day. 

Life. Poe was born in Boston because his parents, 
actors, happened to be there, but he came of Baltimore 
people; and, left an orphan at the age of three, he was 
brought up in the family of a Mr. Allan, of Richmond, 
Virginia. Poe early developed a fatal propensity for 
gambling and drinking, so much so that Mr. Allan with- 
drew him from the University of Virginia and put him 
to work in his office. Soon, however, the boy went to 
Boston, where he attempted to earn his living by his pen. 
Tamerlane and other Poems (1827) was his first pub- 
lication, but it did not bring him either fame or wealth. 
After two years in the army and a few months at West 
Point, from which he was discharged for neglect of 
duty, he returned to the writing profession. In 1833 




EDGAR ALLAN POE 



464 A History of American Literature 

he began to write tales and produced altogether about 
sixty before his death, 1849, but the financial return 

from these was not great : indeed, 
it was positively insufficient for a 
man of his extravagance. His 
poems brought him even less 
1 money. He wandered pathetically 
I from city to city, doing editorial 
work — chiefly in Baltimore, Rich- 
mond, Philadelphia, and Xew 
York. He made considerable 
fame from The Raven (1845), but 
little wealth ; and his natural mel- 
ancholy was increased the following year by the death 
of his wife. Three years later he himself died, from de- 
lirium brought on by drink. 

Works. Since his death, Poe's writings have grown 
in popularity. Still, though the excellence of his tales 
was early recognized in France and England, as well as 
in America, it was a long time before his poetry received 
the recognition it deserved. A large part of the con- 
demnation came, no doubt, from the rather prudish public 
of " Mid- Victorian " times, which assumed that his verses 
must be bad because it disapproved of his life. It was 
the same public that condemned the works of Byron. 
Such criticisms, of course, beg the point at issue — the 
excellence of Poe's poetry. Another cause of the fail- 
ure to appreciate Poe lay in the fact that the American 
public, with its Puritan inheritances, and well schooled 
in Bryant, Longfellow, and Whittier, was incapable of 
appreciating beauty in poetry without a moral, It tried 



Early American Literature 465 

to understand; it did not know how to appreciate. At 
last, however, Poe is coming into his own. It is now 
realized that in lyric power and melody Poe is America's 
greatest poet, that he was an able if fantastic literary 
critic, and that he has had few peers, in any language, 
as a writer of short stories. 

The Raven is of course the best-known of Poe's verse, 
though it reveals his power of melody less than Annabel 
Lee or the musical lines from Al Aaraaf: 

Ligeia ! Wherever 

Thy image may be, 
No magic shall sever 

Thy music from thee. 

And Poe's most perfect poem, perhaps, is the little one 
To Helen: 

Helen, thy beauty is to me 

Like those Nicean barks of yore, 
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea. 

The weary, wayworn wanderer bore 

To his own native shore. 

On desperate seas long wont to roam, 
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, 

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home 
To the glory that was Greece 
And the grandeur that was Rome. 

Lo ! in yon brilliant window-niche 
How statue-like I see thee stand ! 

The agate lamp within thy hand ! 
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which 
Are Holy Land ! 



466 A History of American Literature 

It should be noted that the author of these lines, like 
the English Keats, who also served Beauty, understood 
not only the glory that was Greece, but also the wonder 
that was Romance. The line, 

On desperate seas long wont to roam, 

should be set beside Keats's 

Perilous seas, in fairy lands forlorn 

as a revelation of the spirit of Romanticism. 

But the quantity of Poe's verse is very small, and it 
must be admitted that it lacks the substance and variety 
of the poetry written by the not less lyrical Keats and 
Tennyson. His prose tales make a more substantial 
claim to renown. Not the least remarkable feature of 
these is their variety — what his verse lacked. He 
handles with equal skill such different stories as The 
Fall of the House of Usher, The Gold Bug, The Pit and 
the Pendulum, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 
But they have another excellence. Poe was the first man 
to write short stories in the sense that we understand the 
term to-day. Digressive humor and philosophizing, 
such as Irving and Hawthorne indulged in, he never al- 
lowed himself. Everything — from the first sentence to 
the last, Poe held, — must work towards producing " a 
certain unique or single effect. ... In the whole compo- 
sition there should be no word written, of wdiich the 
tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre- 
established design. " It was the short story thus con- 
ceived that Poe w^rote and that French authors devel- 
oped successfully, looking upon him as their master. 



Early American Literature 467 

THE ORATORS 

Before the middle of the nineteenth century America 
was famous for its orator}'. We have noted Otis, 
Adams, Patrick Henry, and Hamilton. During the 
Romantic period the high standard was maintained, as 
indeed it was till well after the Civil War. Oratory, in 
fact, is the one literary field in which Americans have held 
their own with Englishmen. A large part of its success 
came, of course, from fluent and vigorous speech; the 
great orators were by no means all of them great writers ; 
but all of them had a remarkable command of language 
and a gracefulness of expression that has been the de- 
spair of modern speakers. It is true that the modern, 
business-like world, with its horror of over-statement, 
has revolted from the emotional, florid verbosity, — the 
" spread-eagleism " — which too often marred " ante- 
bellum " oratory, even of such masters as Webster; but, 
in condemning the defects of the old-style oratory, we 
must not lose sight of its virtues. Irving, we recall, 
helped make the English tradition in fiction; but the 
American orators did more in their field — they made 
an American tradition. 

Clay, Calhoun, Choate, Webster, Edward Everett, and 
Sumner carried on this tradition. Of these Everett and 
Sumner are associated with a later age than the first 
three, of whom Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was 
easily the greatest, if not America's chief orator. His 
Bunker Hill Oration (1825) and his Reply to Hayne 
(1830) are his best-known speeches, but not less im- 
portant, historically, are the speech maintaining that the 



468 A History of American Literature 

Constitution is not a compact (1833) an d that for the 
Constitution and the Union (1850). Congressman, 
senator, secretary of state, Webster became an important 
political figure; but as time passes, it is more and more 
realized, his chief greatness was his power as an orator. 
He was an imposing figure, with his eyes " like dull an- 
thracite furnaces, needing only to be blown'' and his 
appearance of " silent, Berserkir-rage." The following 
passage, from the Reply to Hayne, shows well the type 
of his oratory, so magnificent in him, such "fustian bom- 
bast " in his imitators : 

When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the 
sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and 
dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dis- 
severed, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last 
feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign 
of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, 
still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in 
their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single 
star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable inter- 
rogatory as " What is all this worth?" nor those other words 
of delusion and folly, " Liberty first and Union afterwards," 
but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and 
over the land and in every wind under the whole heavens, 
that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, — 
" Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

LITERATURE. Considerable selections from the works of 
Colonial writers are given in Stedman and Hutchinson's Library 



Early American Literature 469 

of American Literature (Benjamin) and in Trent and Wells's 
Colonial Prose and Poetry (Crowell). Fewer, but excellent, 
selections are those in Three Centuries of American Poetry and 
Prose, edited by Newcomer, Andrews, and Hall (Scott, Fores- 
man). 

Franklin's works are edited, with life, by A. H. Smyth 
(Macmillan). His Autobiography is published in many cheap 
school editions. The Declaration of Independence and Wash- 
ington's Farewell Address are accessible in many editions. Se- 
lections from other Revolutionary Writers are given in the 
collections cited above. 

Irving. Life by Warner (American Men of Letters Series). 
Complete works, with life, in Crayon Edition (Putnam). The 
Sketch Book and The Tales of a Traveller are to be found in 
many cheap editions. 

Cooper. Life by Lounsbury (American Men of Letters Se- 
ries). Complete works in Household Edition (Houghton Mif- 
flin). Last of the Mohicans in school editions. 

Bryant. Life by Bigelow (American Men of Letters Se- 
ries). Complete works (Appleton). Good selections in River- 
side Literature Series (Houghton Mifflin). 

Poe. Life by Woodberry (American Men of Letters Series). 
Works in Virginia Edition (Crowell). 

Webster's best speeches are given in American History in 
Literature Series (Moffat) ; the First Bunker Hill Oration in 
many school editions. Selections from Frcncau, Halleck, and 
Drake are in Stedman's American Anthology (Houghton Mif- 
flin). 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

For an introduction to Colonial and Revolutionary literature 
and to the lesser writers of the Romantic Period, a very good 
idea can be obtained by reading the selections given in Three 
Centuries of American Poetry and Prose (Scott Foresman). 
In addition, at least the following should be read: Franklin's 
Autobiography; Irving's Sketch Book and Tales of a trav- 
eller; Cooper's Last of the Mohicans; Bryant's Thanatop- 



470 A History of American Literature 

sis. To a Waterfowl, Forest Hymn, Death of the Flowers, 
The Evening Wind, To a Fringed Gentian. America, The 
Yellow Violet, and The Flood of Years: Poe's Raven. To 
Helen. To One in Paradise. The Bells. Lenore. Annabel 
Lee. and Ulalume; The Fall of the House of Usher. The 
Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, The 
Descent into the Maelstrom. The Gold Bug. and The Pit 
and the Pendulum; and Webster's First Bunker Hill 
Oration. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. The history of America for 
the period of this chapter is fairly well covered by Lodge's 

jlish Colonies in America, Hart's 
d McMaster's History of the United 
Rcvciurion to the Civil JVar. Fiske's Critical 
lean History and Spark's Expansion of the 
1 are also recommended. Tyler's History of 
:<rc. 1607-1765. covers ice Colonial period: the 
by Trent and Wendell are recommended as 
Xew England Two Centuries Ago/" in 
Literary Essays should be read. 

POETRY AND FICTION. A brief selection of books which 
help to give a background to the study of early American 
literature would include: Longfellow's Courtship of Miies 
Standish. Cooper's Red Rover, The Spy, and The Last of the 
Mohicans. Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair, Mary Johnston's 
To Have ana To Hold, and Weir Mitchell's Hugh Wynne. 



Short History 
Formation ofth 

States from the 
Period of Amc 
American Poop, 

literary historie 
well: and Lowell's 



CHAPTER II 
THE AGE OF LONGFELLOW (1840-1890) 

About the same time that the great Victorian Age be- 
gan in English literature, America experienced a similar 
growth. Much the same forces were at work on both 
sides of the Atlantic — prosperity, the use of steam, and 
the rapid development of schools and libraries produced 
a reading public and in that public an awakened eagerness 
for literature. Travel increased — in fact, travel, except 
for the journeys of a few, first began in this time — and 
the result, with invigorating effect, was the introduction 
to Americans of a European literature of which they 
had been more or less ignorant. 

At the same time, though the greatest American writers 
of this, America's greatest, period were in close touch with 
European literature, there developed certain distinctive 
American characteristics. The " spread-eagleism/' al- 
ready noted, continued as a blemish ; but, in contrast to 
it, a certain journalistic dash, brevity, and dry humor 
became increasingly characteristic of the people and the 
literature. 

THE NEW ENGLAND GROUP 

Except for early Colonial days, New England, it 
should be noted, had so far produced few important 

47i 



47 2 A History of American Literature 

writers. Though Bryant left New England when he was 
a young man, his poetry harks back to his Massachu- 
setts surroundings, so that New England may justly 
claim him. But Franklin and Poe, born in Boston, not 
only left it early, but are not in any sense typical of it. 
Of the other chief names, Jefferson, Hamilton, Irving, 
Cooper, and Webster, only the last is associated with 
New England. In this middle nineteenth century period, 
however, New England supplied all the great writers. 
Puritanism had a sterilizing effect on literature and the 
arts; but the strength bred of Puritan ancestry and the 
rigors of New England existence made the best sort of 
basis for literary production when the culture of Europe 
was let in. 

THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS 

One of the first signs of awakening literature in New 
England appeared in a movement commonly known as 
" Transcendentalism." It is a vague end confusing term, 
based on the writings of German philosophers and the in- 
heritances of English Romanticism, particularly that of 
Wordsworth and Coleridge. To every one there is a 
world of outer fact and a world of inner " spiritual " 
life. Some give up attempting to understand the inner 
life and frankly accept the fact-world as the real one. 
Others see a mysterious harmony between the two. The 
Puritan accepted the fact-world as real, but to be rejected 
as transitory and wicked. The Transcendentalist, in 
general, rejected the fact-world, not because it was 
wicked, but because to him it was not real. Things of 
the sense (the fact-world) were to him only manifesta- 



& 



The Age of Longfellow 473 

tions of the world of spirit and " pure " intellect; he at- 
tempted to transcend, or go beyond, things which his 
senses and mere logic established, and, following Kant, 
the German philosopher, he based his proof of the spir- 
itual world on what he called "pure reason," or a sort 
of intuition. 

Naturally the beauties of nature, as manifestations 
of Truth, or God, attracted the Transcendentalist, to 
whom inspiration and vision meant everything. It is 
not surprising, therefore, to find the champions of the 
new movement retiring to what they intended should be 
a perfect community at Brook Farm, just outside of Bos- 
ton. Here soul was to converse with soul, and all with 
nature. The settlement eventually proved a failure, for 
it did not take into account the necessity of plain, hard 
work in this world of fact, but it had a great influence 
on many people, notably on Emerson and Thoreau. 
Hawthorne actually joined the settlement, but came soon 
to the conclusion that " a man's soul may be buried 
... in a furrow of the field, just as well as under 
a pile of money." The two most important writers 
of the early Transcendentalists were Amos Bronson Al- 
cott (1799-1888) and Margaret Fuller (1810- 
1850), the latter of whom acted as first editor of an in- 
fluential little magazine, the Dial. The literary import- 
ance of the movement now, however, lies in the fact that 
it had a profound influence on Emerson and Thoreau. 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882) 

Though Emerson's first distinction came from his 
idealistic, transcendental philosophy, he grew into a great 



474 A History of American Literature 

thinker and America's greatest essayist. He must not 
be associated solely with a rather narrow group of ideal- 
ists. He became a veritable prophet to Americans of 
many sections and creeds. And from a purely literary 
point of view, he was one of the masters of English prose 
style. 

Life. Emerson was born in 1803 of an old Concord 
family, many of whom had been clergymen. His wid- 
owed mother, though poor, gave her son a good educa- 
tion, and he earned his way through Harvard. Trained 

for the Unitarian ministry, he 
for a short time preached at the 
North Church, Boston, but he 
soon gave up his profession be- 
cause he could not conscienti- 
ously follow the belief and cus- 
toms of his church. For the 
rest of his life, most of it spent 
quietly in Concord, he wrote 
poetry and essays. A visit to 
England in 1833 acquainted him 
with many celebrated English- 
men, especially Carlyle, with 
whom he kept up a correspondence for nearly fifty years. 
Like Wordsworth's, his life was uneventful, but, also 
like Wordsworth, he was associated in his country home 
with neighbors of high ideals and literary distinction. 
Indeed, even more than Wordsworth he diffused a sort 
of sanctifying presence, " a pure intellectual gleam " 
over the region about Concord. Unwittingly, he made it 
the chief American shrine of literary pilgrims. 




RALPH WALDO EMERSON 



The Age of Longfellow 475 

Emerson's poems and essays, frequently published one 
by one, were collected occasionally into volumes. The 
chief collections of his poems appeared in 1846, 1865, 
and 1878, but he wrote poetry more or less all his life. 
The chief of his prose publications are: The American 
Scholar (1837), Essays (1841, 1844), Representative 
Men (1850), English Traits (1856), The Conduct of 
Life (i860). For two years (1842-44) he was editor 
of the Dial. 

Works. Emerson's poetry, full of his idealistic phil- 
osophy and a gentle fondness for nature, appeals very 
strongly to a limited number of readers. The great read- 
ing public does not greatly heed it, however, for, besides 
its " other-worldliness," it is frequently so compact and 
penetrating in thought that it is difficult to understand. 
This of course is a merit, in one sense; those who get 
something out of Emerson always find more on a second 
reading. Among his best poems are The Rhodora, Each 
and All, The Snow-Storm, The Problem, Astrcca, Give 
All to Love, Threnody, Worship, and the Concord Hymn. 
Most of these are permeated by his idealism and love of 
nature, as in Each and All: 

Over me soared the eternal sky, 

Full of light and deity; 

Again I saw, again I heard, 

The rolling river, the morning bird ; — 

Beauty through my senses stole; 

I yielded myself to the perfect whole. 

The Concord Hymn, written for a special occasion, is not 
so typically Emersonian, but it is justly considered his 
greatest poem, if only for the often-quoted first stanza : 



476 A History of American Literature 

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 

Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world. 

If Emerson had written nothing else, he would be famous 
for these lines, which themselves have been " heard round 
the world.'' 

Emerson's chief fame, as indeed his chief merit, is re- 
vealed in his prose. Many of his essays have amounted 
to a gospel for a host of readers. In the essays, too, he 
reflects constantly his idealistic thought, with a trans- 
cendental coloring, but, a thorough New Englander, he 
is not less interested in conduct — in the application of 
the ideal. Some of his best-known essays are on Plato, 
Swedcnborg, Shakespeare, Goethe (these from Repre- 
sentative Men suggest strongly Carlyle's earlier volume, 
Heroes and Hero-Worship). Other famous essays are 
those on Nature, on Self -Reliance, on Friendship, on 
Over-Soul, on Civilization. His works abound with such 
vivid, inspiring phrases as : " Hitch your wagon to a 
star;" " this man . . . planted the standard of hu- 
manity some furlongs forward into chaos ; " " Knowl- 
edge will brighten the sunshine; right is more beautiful 
than private affection; and love is compatible with uni- 
versal wisdom." The heart of his encouraging gospel — 
one with the message of many other great men of his 
time 1 — is contained in the following paragraph from 
Self -Reliance : 

1 See, for comparison, pp. 363-4 on Browning, and pp. 375-6 on 
Carlyle. 



The Age of Longfellow 477 

Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string. Ac- 
cept the place the divine providence has found for you, the 
society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. 
Great men have always done so, and confided themselves child- 
like to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that 
the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working 
through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we 
are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same 
transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a pro- 
tected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but 
guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty 
effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark. 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was the most 
literal of the Transcendentalists. He not only loved 
nature, but lived with it intimately, for a while in a hut 
on the shore of Walden Pond, near Concord. He never 
found a " companion/' he says, " that was so companion- 
able as solitude." Besides his love of nature, he pos- 
sessed a sort of rugged honesty of purpose and an un- 
compromising belief in manual labor well done. Added 
to these he developed a style both picturesque and vigor- 
ous. This is how he writes of early spring: 

I am on the alert for the first signs of spring, to hear the 
chance note of some arriving bird, or the striped squirrel's 
chirp, for his stores must be now nearly exhausted, or see the 
woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters. On the 13th 
of March, after I had heard the bluebird, song-sparrow, and 
red-wing, the ice was still nearly a foot thick. 

Thoreau was a voluminous writer, considering his way 
of life. His best works are A Week on the Concord and 
Mcrrimac Rivers (1849), Walden (1854), and his 
Journal, selections from which were published after his 



478 A History of American Literature 

death as Spring (1881), Summer (1884), Winter 
(1887), and Autumn (1892). The whole Journal was 
not published till 1906. The following may serve as an 
example of both his simple sincerity and of his ideal- 
istic philosophy : 

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to 
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not 
learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, dis- 
cover that I had not lived. ... I wanted to live deep and 
suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- 
like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad 
swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce 
it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then 
to get the whole and genuine meanness out of it, and publish 
its meanness to the world ; or if it were sublime, to know it by 
experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my 
next excursion. 

I learned this, at least, by my experiment, that if one ad- 
vances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors 
to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a 
success unexpected in common hours. ... In proportion as he 
simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less 
complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, 
nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, 
your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. 
Now put the foundations under them. 

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864) 

Hawthorne was another of the Concord group, though 
on account of his birthplace and the House of the Seven 
Gables he is equally associated with Salem, Massachu- 
setts. As great a writer of tales * as Irving, he was in 

1 Like Irving, Hawthorne did not write " Short Stories " in the 
sense that Poe wrote them. 



The Age of Longfellow 



479 




addition the greatest novelist that has yet appeared in 
America. 

Life. Hawthorne's father was a Salem sea-captain, 
after whose death, when the boy was only four, his 
mother spent the greater part of her time alone in her 
own room. The same sort of aloofness, accompanied 

by great shyness, early 
became characteristic 
of the boy. After a 
strange and lonely 
youth, broken some- 
what by his acquaint- 
ance at Bowdoin Col- 
lege with Longfellow 
and others, he lived in 
positive seclusion at 
Salem for a dozen years, struggling as an unsuccessful 
author and suffering great depression. After the publi- 
cation of Twice-Told Tales in 1836, however, he came 
somewhat out of his seclusion, became intimate with the 
Peabodys of Salem, and tried the Brook Farm settlement 
for a year. Soon after, he married Miss Sophia Peabody 
and moved to the " Old Manse," Concord, where he 
brought out his Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). 
For several years his struggle with debt continued, and he 
worked for a while as surveyor of customs at Salem, but 
in 1850 one of his greatest books, The Scarlet Letter, 
brought him both fame and a competence. He moved 
again to Concord, this time to the house called " Way- 
side/' where, except for seven years abroad, during part 
of which he was consul at Liverpool, he spent the re- 



HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES 



480 A History of American Literature 

mainder of his life. The House of the Seven Gables ap- 
peared in 185 1 ; The Blithedale Romance, in 1852; and 
The Marble Faun, his last book, in i860. Hawthorne's 
health began to fail, and he died in 1864. 

Works. Both in the tales and in the novels Haw- 
thorne reveals his two great characteristics : an intense, 
almost Puritan interest in the moral consequences of 
human error, and a singular power in depicting human 
characters. In addition, he has a remarkable command 
of language, coupled with a delightful, if not very genial, 
vein of humor, and an unusual appreciation of the beau- 
ties of nature. Like the great English novelist, George 
Eliot, Hawthorne displays the power of developing his 
story, not merely through a plot or through a changing 
character, but through the influence of each on the other 
— a skill which gives his stories, though they are roman- 
tic, a most impressive realism. More than this, he is par- 
ticularly skilful in setting his characters in a suggestive 
background. By his consummate use of language he 
gradually weaves a picture in which plot and characters, 
reacting on each other, take much of their direction from 
an increasing and inevitable " atmosphere." If this por- 
tentous atmosphere is sometimes dreary, as in The House 
of the Seven Gables, or almost stifling, as in The Marble 
Faun, it should be realized that it is properly so; in no 
way so successfully could the author drive home the great 
and terrible morals of his books. 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) 
Longfellow is the most central and most commanding 
literary figure of the middle nineteenth century in Amer- 



The Age of Longfellow 



481 




HENRY WADSWORTH 
LONGFELLOW 



ica. Though much of his poetry has latterly been criti- 
cized as commonplace (and undoubtedly his fame was for 
a while out of all proportion to his genius), he neverthe- 
less bears much the same repre- 
sentative position in American 
poetry that Tennyson does in 
English. Like Tennyson, he 
covers in his literary activity a 
long period and a great variety 
(he does not represent merely 
one fashion or type) ; and, again 
like Tennyson, he appeals to a 
wide, if not always discriminat- 
ing, circle of readers. 

Life. Longfellow was born in 
1807 in Portland, Maine. While 
still at Bowdoin College, he formed the desire to become 
an author, but, at his father's advice, decided to study 
law. On graduation from college, however, he was of- 
fered a position by Bowdoin if he would first go abroad 
to study. He eagerly accepted the offer, spent three years 
abroad, and returned as Professor of Modern Languages 
at Bowdoin. Five years later he accepted a similar chair 
at Harvard, after another trip to Europe. This position 
he held for nearly twenty years, after which, still residing 
in the now famous €t Craigie House " in Cambridge, he 
gave himself up wholly to writing. 

Longfellow r 's first important publication was a volume 
of travel sketches, Ontre-Mer, in 1835. Voices of the 
Night (1839), contained his earlier poems. Thereafter 
he continued to publish frequently, usually poetry, though 



482 A History of American Literature 

he wrote two novels, Hyperion (1839) and Kavanagh 
(1849). His chief longer poems are: Evangeline 
(1847), The Golden Legend (1851), Hiawatha (1855), 
and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858). Many of 
his best shorter poems came out in small volumes, such 
as The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems (1845) an ^ 
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863). He also made a not- 
able translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (1867-1870). 

Longfellow's later life was attended with much honor. 
In England as well as America he was considered a very 
great man, and after his death, in 1882, he received the 
distinction of a monument in the Poets' Corner, West- 
minster Abbey. Yet affection, even more than honor, 
was accorded him. Himself fond of children, he has 
become one of their favorite poets. 

Works. Longfellow's poetry falls rather easily into 
three groups — his shorter, lyrical poems, such as A 
Psalm of Life, The Bridge, The Old Clock on the Stairs; 
his shorter narratives, such as The Wreck of the Hes- 
perus, King Robert of Sicily, Paul Revere, The Skeleton 
in Armor; and his long narratives, such as Evangeline 
and Hiawatha. The last two without doubt merit their 
fame as belonging to the great narratives of English 
poetry. The story interest is sustained, the descriptions 
are vivid, and Longfellow's verse, like Scott's and By- 
ron's, simple and smooth, is well suited to narrative 
poetry. Of the others, many have long since been house- 
hold favorites. Much of their reputation, however, is 
based on sentimental associations; the Skeleton in Ar- 
mor, for instance, is incomparably superior to the equally 
famous, but rather feeble, Wreck of the Hesperus. 



The Age of Longfellow 483 

It should be noted, nevertheless, that the cause of the 
popularity of many of Longfellow's poems was the simple 
lesson that they taught. He has been justly criticized 
for his lack of depth and poetic fire; he neither excites 
great thought nor stirs great passion. True as this is, 
he in large measure makes up for it by the breadth of his 
appeal. The sentiments he expresses are felt in every 
home ; the simple moral he preaches is applicable to every 
hearth. It is the message of 



*& v 



Let us then be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate; 

Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait. 

Longfellow wrote, as he wished to hear in The Day is 
Done, " simple, heartfelt lays," — 

Not from the grand old masters, 
Not from the bards sublime, 

Whose distant footsteps echo 
Through the corridors of Time. 

" Read," he goes on, 

Read from some humbler poet, 

Whose songs gushed from his heart, 

As showers from the clouds of summer, 
Or tears from the eyelids start; 

Who, through long days of labor, 

And nights devoid of ease, 
Still heard in his soul the music 

Of wonderful melodies. 



484 A History of American Literature 

This kind of poem Longfellow himself often wrote — 
poems that 

come like the benediction 
That follows after prayer. 

Even when he drew for subjects on his large knowledge 
of European history, he maintained the simplicity of the 
" humbler poet." His language, like his subjects, is 
often commonplace — it must be to fit the subjects; but 
in spite of this, if not indeed actually on account of it, he 
contrives to give his readers, as no other poet has suc- 
ceeded in doing, the feeling that 

the night shall be filled with music, 
And the cares, that infest the day, 
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, 
And as silently steal away. 

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892) 

The author of Snowbound, like the author of Hia- 
watha, will always be dear to the New England heart. 
He should have importance as well, however, because he 
reflects more intimately than any American poet the 
simple life of a New England farm (the background of 
so many American families) and the intense feeling that 
arose when the slavery question was prominent. Much 
of his poetry, like Longfellow's, won a wholly sentimental 
and exaggerated devotion in his own day; but, as that 
day recedes, it still wins readers, as Longfellow's does, 
for its simple message to the common heart ; and if Long- 
fellow surpasses Whittier in this respect as also in the 
excellence of his narrative poems, Whittier at least car- 



The Age of Longfellow 



485 



ries an inspiration, an uplift, almost wholly lacking in the 
Cambridge poet. 

Life. Whittier, the son of a Quaker farmer, was born 
in East Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1807. He had a 




WHITTIER HOMESTEAD AT AMESBURY 

poor schooling, never went to college, and spent most of 
his boyhood in work on the farm. Through the influence 



486 A History of American Literature 

of William Lloyd Garrison, the great abolitionist, how- 
ever, he took to writing. He had read Burns and felt 
that the Haverhill plowboy might also become a poet. 
Garrison secured him editorial work in Boston, and from 
time to time after this "Whittier held various editorial 
positions in different cities, especially in Hartford and 
Philadelphia. He early became an ardent abolitionist, 
and much of his editorial writing consisted of poems 
against slavery. His membership in the Abolitionist 
party, however, made it difficult for him to hold a posi- 
tion or to get his verses published, even in the North. 
He was mobbed and frequently threatened with his life. 
In fact, till the publication of Snowbound, in 1S66, he 
was very poor, almost in want. But after the Civil War 
he was respected and loved, especially in Massachusetts. 
The greater part of his life he lived at Amesbury, near 
Haverhill, and for the last twenty years was a venerable 
figure, particularly to young men of high ideals. A good 
deal criticized for his belligerent attitude towards slavery, 
he wrote in defense of himself: " I inherited from my 
Quaker ancestry hatred of slavery, but not of slave- 
holders." It was a fair distinction, held by the majority 
of the Quakers of his day, who were notably for the 
abolitionist cause. 

Works. Whittier's poetry is very uneven. At times 
his verse is noble and inspiring, as in The Eternal Good- 
ness (1865) ; sometimes it is dull and diffuse; frequently 
it is in the happy, if minor, key of The Barefoot Boy and 
In Schooldays. These simple verses, together with such 
narratives as Barbara Frietehie, are, next to Snow- 
bound, the best-known and best-loved of Whittier's 



The Age of Longfellow 487 

poems. Of all his abolitionist poems none is stronger 
than Ichabod, 1 the poet's attack on Webster when the abo- 
litionists thought, in 1850, that the statesman had com- 
promised his conscience to get the Presidency: 

So fallen ! so lost ! the light withdrawn 

Which once he wore ! 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 

Forevermore ! 

Of all we loved and honored, naught 

Save power remains, — 
A fallen angel's pride of thought, 

Still strong in chains. 

All else is gone ; from those great eyes 

The soul has fled: 
When faith is lost, when honor dies, 

The man is dead ! 

The best part of Snowbound is the actual description 
of the storm and of the family shut in from all com- 
munication with the outside world. The poem, many 
feel, is marred by an excess of reflective moralizing to- 
wards the end, but, though this may be a sort of defect 
from an artistic point of view, it is nevertheless an essen- 
tial part of the portrayal of a New England farmstead, 
with its strong Puritan inheritances. 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891) 

Though Lowell does not rank, as a poet, with Long- 
fellow and Whittier, his Vision of Sir Launfal is hardly 

1 Ichabod, in Hebrew, means " the glory is departed." See I Sam. 
iv, 21. Historians generally acquit Webster of base motives ; his 
main desire was to save the Union. 



488 A History of American Literature 



surpassed by any single American poem. In addition he 
was an accomplished essayist and a public citizen of dis- 
tinction. 

Life. Lowell, son of a Xew England clergyman and 
descendant of a well-known family, was born in Cam- 
— -- *||MM^a^^^^^M bridge in 18 19. After a good 

education, he studied law, but, 
like Scott and Irving, turned to 
literature. In his youth he had 
dawdled a good deal, with what 
he called " the Spence negli- 
gence " (his mother was a 
Spence), but after his marriage 
to Maria White, a woman of 
peculiarly noble character, he 
took earnestly to his work and 
soon achieved results. Before 
he was thirty some of his best 
james russell lowell poe try appeared — in 1848 
alone, The Biglow Papers, First Series; A Fable for 
Critics; and The Vision of Sir Launfal. 

In 1855 Lowell succeeded Longfellow as professor of 
modern languages at Harvard, a position which he held 
with distinction for over twenty years. During this time, 
too, he came into prominence as a writer of essays, and 
from 1857 to T 86i was the first editor of The Atlantic 
Monthly. His best prose, republished in book-form, ap- 
peared in Among My Books (1870 and 1876) and My 
Study Windows (1871). Lowell continued to write 
verse ; though, except for the Biglow Papers, Second Se- 




The Age of Longfellow 489 

ries (1867), and some of the poems in Heartsease and 
Rue (1888), most of it was written for special commem- 
orative occasions and is not his best. • 

In 1877 Lowell was appointed minister to Spain and 
three years later to the same office in England, a position 
which he filled for five years with great success. On his 
retirement, he returned to " Elm wood," his Cambridge 
home, where he died in 1891. 

Works. In spite of his urbanity — for Lowell was 
the most cosmopolitan of the Xew England writers — 
he, too, felt the characteristic Xew England obligation to 
point a moral, and in the Vision of Sir Launfal, as in 
other poems, he showed that he could do it well. But 
two things besides his urbanity — his humor and his sense 
of fact — saved Lowell from the commonplace, obtru- 
sive moralizing of many of his contemporaries. He was 
refreshingly free from delusions. 

Lowell wrote very little great poetry, but his descrip- 
tions of nature are intimate and vivid, his Biglow Papers, 
in provincial Xew England dialect, are distinguished for 
native humor and homespun wit, and in Sir Launfal he 
wrote one of the most famous poems in the language. 
In the description of summer, beginning 

And what is so rare as a day in June? 

Then, if ever, come perfect days; 
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays, 

he is particularly successful, as in the contrasted picture 
of winter, — 



49° A History of American Literature 

The little brook heard it and built a roof 
'Neath which he could house him, winterproof; 
All night by the white stars' frosty gleams 
He groined his arches and matched his beams; 
Slender and clear were his crystal spars 
As the lashes of light that trim the stars; 

while the lines towards the end, when the leper appears 
transfigured as Christ, are appropriately noble. 

No account of Lowell's verse would be complete with- 
out a quotation from the Biglow Papers. Perhaps the 
best of all the papers is The Conrtin' ; for though it was 
written to fill a page of the Atlantic Monthly and has 
no connection with the political arguments of " Hosea 
Biglow," it is in his humorous vein. The poem should 
be read in its entirety to get the complete effect, but a 
few stanzas give some idea of the style : 

God makes sech nights, all white an' still 

Fur'z you can look or listen, 
Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill, 

All silence an' all glisten. 

Zekle crep up quite unbeknown 

An' peeked in thru' the winder, 
An' there sot Huldy all alone, 

'Ith no one nigh to hinder. 

He kin' o' l'itered on the mat 

Some doubtful o' the sekle, 
His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, 

But hern went pity Zekle. 



To say why gals acts so or so. 
Or don't, 'ould be presumin'; 



The Age of Longfellow 491 

Mebby to mean yes an' say no 
Comes nateral to women. 

For she was jes' the quiet kind 

Whose naturs never vary, 
Like streams that keep a summer mind 

Snow-hid in Jenooary. 

If it were not for Sir Launfal and the Biglow Papers, 
Lowell's chief distinction would be as an essayist. In 
addition to his humor and saving sense of fact, he was 
a discerning critic of literature, and he possessed a style 
that is vigorous, thought-provocative, and graceful. Of 
Thoreau, for instance, he says : 

While he studied with respectful attention the minks and 
woodchucks, his neighbors, he looked with utter contempt on 
the august drama of destiny of which his country was the 
scene, and on which the curtain had already risen. He was 
converting us back to a state of nature " so eloquently," as 
Voltaire said of Rousseau, " that he almost persuaded us to 
go on all fours/' while the wiser fates were making it possible 
for us to walk erect for the first time. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), the Boston 
doctor and Harvard Professor, was even more than Low- 
ell the New England humorist. He wrote some serious 
verse — for example, Old Ironsides (1830), the famous 
poem which begins 

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down ! 

and which saved the famous frigate Constitution from 
being dismantled and sold, and The Chambered Nautilus 
(1838), with its fine last stanza, — 



49 2 A History of American Literature 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 
Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free. 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! 

The majority of his poetry, however, is humorous, full 
of puns and quaint turns of wit: and the Deacon's Mas- 
terpiece, or The Wonderful i( One-Hoss Shay " 1 ( 1858) , 
is his chief cause for fame as a poet. 

The other great cause of Holmes's fame is The Auto- 
crat of the Breakfast-Table (1858), prose papers pub- 
lished in The Atlantic Monthly and incomparably delight- 
ful in their whimsical humor. In similar vein he wrote 
The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1859) and The 
Poet at the Breakfast-Table | 1872) . In addition he pro- 
duced several volumes of essays and three "medicated'' 
novels, chief of which is Elsie Venner ( 1861). 

OTHER NEW ENGLAND WRITERS 

Besides the authors just considered, Xew England pro- 
duced in this wonderful American Renaissance a great 
many writers of only slightly less renown. There is not 
space here to discuss many of them, but not even a brief 
account would be complete without mention of the his- 
torians ; William H. Prescott (1796-1859), author of 
The Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest of Peru; 
John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877), author of Rise 

1 Professor Barrett Wendell and others consider the poem a satire 
on Puritanism, which, like the " shay," broke down in the eighteenth 

centurv after a hundred years of service. 



The Age of Longfellow 493 

of the Dutch Republic and History of the United Nether- 
lands; and Francis Parkman ( 1 823-1 893) . well-known 
for his Oregon Trail, Montcalm and Wolfe, and other 
histories of pioneer days. The traditional skill in oratory 
was well continued by such men as Edward Everett, 
Charles Sumner, and Wendell Phillips. Edward Ev- 
erett Hale (1822-1909), author of the famous little 
Man Without a Country, and Charles Dudley Warner 
( 1829-1900) , charming editor and humorist, 1 though they 
lived till recent times, belong primarily with the substantial 
age which knew not the breathless haste of the modern day 
of telephones and quick-lunch counters. The same may 
be said of the " grand old woman/' Julia Ward Howe 
(1819-1910), who is associated w r ith the beginnings of 
woman's struggle for rights, and of Harriet Beecher 
Stowe (18 1 2-1 896), author of one great book, Uncle 
Tom's Cabin. Mrs. Howe's Battle Hymn of the Re- 
public, written after a visit to a soldiers' camp during 
the Civil War, and justly called " the great and terrible 
hymn," is coming more and more to be considered per- 
haps our greatest national song; as our nation again 
unites in the cause of liberty, this poem finds an echo in 
every American heart, — 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat: 
Oh ! be swift, my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my feet ! 
Our God is marching on. 

Apart from the world, scarcely known in her own day 
and too little read to-day, Emily Dickinson (1830- 

1 My Summer in a Garden, though not very widely known, is one 
of the best of Warner's humorous books. 



494 A History of American Literature 

1886) just missed, by her almost total neglect of form, 
being one of our greatest poets. She had a vision that 
suggests Emerson, an intimacy with nature that almost 
equals Thoreau's, and a remarkable power of writing 
quick, penetrating phrases. Typical are such lines as 

Inebriate of air am I, 
And debauchee of dew, 



or 

No blackbird bates his jargoning 
For passing Calvary, 

or 

Because I could not stop for Death, 

He kindly stopped for me; 
The carriage held but just ourselves 

And Immortality. 

The following little poem is one of her best : 

Success is counted sweetest 
By those who ne'er succeed. 
To comprehend a nectar 
Requires sorest need. 

Not one of all the purple host 
Who took the flag to-day 
Can tell the definition, 
So clear, of victory, 

As he, defeated, dying, 
On whose forbidden ear 
The distant strains of triumph 
Break, agonized and clear. 

Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887), born and edu- 
cated in New England, spent the later part of his life iri 



The Age of Longfellow 495 

the West. His untimely death cut short the career of a 
poet and thinker. of great promise, best known perhaps 
for The Fool's Prayer. 

WRITERS OUTSIDE NEW ENGLAND 

New England produced not only the best American 
literature in the time of Longfellow, but the chief bulk 
of it. The whole eastern part of the country, however, 
was affected by the same energy, and several important 
literary names belong to the Middle States and the South. 

William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), the " Cooper 
of the South," is best known for his Indian novel, The 
Yemasee (1835). Henry Timrod (1 829-1 867) and 
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886) were Southern 
poets of ability, if not of great merit. 

Sidney Lanier (1842-1881), however, is, after Poe, 
the South's greatest poet. In addition, his theories of 
poetic composition, perhaps more than Poe's, have had an 
influence on later writers. Stress, or quality of accent, 
is the chief consideration in English meter; it was Lanier 
who showed, even if he did not discover, the fact that 
quantity also plays an important part. Some of Lanier's 
verse is very melodious, especially Tampa Robins, The 
Song of the Chattahoochee, and The Marshes of Glynn. 

Farther North, near Philadelphia, Bayard Taylor 
( 1825-1878), wrote both verse and prose of high quality. 
His Bedouin Song and The Song of the Camp are his 
best poems. His prose covered a wide field : novels, 
travel sketches, history, and essays on literary subjects. 
Just before his death he was appointed United States 
Minister to Germany. Undoubtedly his greatest work 



496 A History of American Literature 

is his Translation of Faust (1870-71), in the original 
meters and vet remarkably accurate. 

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an irregular gen- 
ius, whose work has been praised almost as excessively as 




WALT WHITMAN 

it has been condemned. Unconventional in both life and 
writing, he discarded wholly the necessity of literary 
form. Sometimes, as he contended, this liberated the 
true emotion into appropriate, untrammeled expression; 
at other times it liberated the emotion into trivial expres- 
sion — it tempted him, and he often yielded, to indulge in 
the commonplace and the sordid, expressed in verbose and 
commonplace language. One of the most important fea- 
tures of this theory is that it gave the impetus to a great 



The Age of Longfellow 497 

deal of the unrythmical "new poetry " of to-day. It is 
well, in view of this fact, to observe that the best of Whit- 
man's poetry is magnificently rythmical, in much the 
sense that the English Bible is rythmical. Whitman lived 
a great part of his life near New York City, and his poems 
usually deal either with the pathos, squalor, and beauty 
of city-life or with camp-life and the Civil War. 
Through them there runs a great sensitiveness, a strong 
feeling of kinship with nature, and a rugged sincerity. 
He is at his best in the poem, on Lincoln's death, begin- 
ning 

O captain ! my captain ! our fearful trip is done ; 

but more characteristic are the following lines from 
Mannahatta: 

The mechanics of the city, the masters, well- 
formed, beautiful-faced, looking you 
straight in the eyes, 

Tr\)ttoirs thronged, vehicles, Broadway, the 
women, the shops and shows, 

A million people — manners free and superb 
— open voices — hospitality — the most 
courageous and friendly young men, 

City of hurried and sparkling waters ! city of 
spires and masts ! 

City nested in bays ! my city ! 

Among all the American masters of prose, few, if any, 
surpass Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). His great- 
ness as a statesman and as " Saviour of the Union " for 
a while over-shadowed his greatness as a writer, but lat- 
terly his Letters and Speeches have been receiving some 



498 A History of American Literature 

of the attention they deserve. Lincoln himself was un- 
conscious of possessing great skill either as a writer or a 
speaker ; indeed, he felt that he had failed in his famous 
Gettysburg Address, in contrast to the grand eloquence 
of other orators there present. Like Bunyan, whose 
early education came largely from reading the Bible, Lin- 
coln acquired what he never lost, a simplicity, a direct- 
ness, and a dignity of style which characterizes all his 




CABIN IN WHICH LINCOLN WAS BORN 



great writings. And since he was able to use whatever 
he learned, he developed, as he proceeded through the 
practice of law and public life to the presidency, a fitness 
of vocabulary and a gracefulness of expression which 
obliterated the crudities of his humble origin. His let- 
ters, as some of his speeches, abound in dry, American 
humor, at which he had few peers ; and sometimes by this 
very humor he saved important and delicate situations — 
as when he silenced the critics who accused Grant of 
drinking too much, by saying that he wished he knew the 
brand of liquor that Grant used, so that he might recom- 



The Age of Longfellow 499 

mend it to some of his other generals. But he was at 
his greatest when the subject called forth the simplicity 
and serious dignity of the language he had learned to use 
so well — the language and the high ideals which he has 
put imperishably into the great Gettysburg Address. 



BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

[Note. Selections from the chief works of nineteenth cen- 
tury authors are so numerous and so accessible that in most 
cases only a standard edition is cited.] 

LITERATURE. The Chief American Poets (Houghton 
Mifflin) gives full selections from the poetry of Bryant, Poe 
(both in Chap. I.), Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, 
Lowell, Whitman, and Lanier, with an excellent short biogra- 
phy of each. 

Three Centuries of American Poetry and Prose (Scott, Fores- 
man) is a good collection covering nearly all the authors con- 
sidered in Chap. II. 

Emerson. Life by Woodberry (Macmillan) ; also Cabot's 
A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 2 vols. (Houghton Mif- 
flin). Works in Riverside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). 
Poems, 1 vol., in Household Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Many 
editions of the essays. 

Thore.au. Life by Sanborn (American Men of Letters Se- 
ries). Works in Riverside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Wal- 
den in many editions. 

Hawthorne. Life by Woodberry (American Men of Letters 
Series). Works in Riverside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). 
House of the Seven Gables in Riverside Literature Series. 

Longfellow. Life by S. Longfellow, 3 vols. (Houghton Mif- 
flin). Shorter life by Higginson (American Men of Letters 
Series). Works in Riverside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). 
Poems, one vol., in Cambridge Edition (Houghton Mifflin). 



500 A History of American Literature 

Hiawatha, Evangeline, Tales of a Wayside Inn, and selections 
in school editions. 

Whittier. Life by Pickard, 2 vols. (Houghton Mifflin). 
Shorter life by Carpenter (American Men of Letters Series). 
Works in Riverside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Poems, one 
vol., in Cambridge Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Snowbound 
and selections in Riverside Literature Series (Houghton Mif- 
flin). 

Lowell. Life by Scudder, 2 vols. (Houghton Mifflin). 
Shorter life by Greenslet (Houghton Mifflin). Works in Riv- 
erside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Poems, 1 vol., in Cambridge 
Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Vision of Sir Lannfal in school 
editions. 

Holmes. Life by Crothers (Houghton Mifflin). Works in 
Riverside Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Poems, 1 vol., in Cam- 
bridge Edition (Houghton Mifflin). Autocrat of the Breakfast 
Table and selected poems in Riverside Literature Scries 
(Houghton Mifflin). 

Whitman. Life by Perry (Houghton Mifflin). Works in 
Camden Edition (Putnam). Brief selections in English Class- 
ics (Maynard). 

Lanier. Life by Baskerville (Southern Writers). Works in 
separate volumes (Scribners). 

Lincoln. Life by Nicolay (Century). Letters and Speeches 
in several editions ; convenient selections published by Ginn and 
by Houghton Mifflin. 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

Emerson's Essays on Self-Reliance, Friendship, Charac- 
ter; chapters on Nature and Idealism in the volume called 
Nature; and the poems Each and All, Concord Hymn, The 
Rhodora, The Snow-Storm, and Brahma. 

Thoreau's Walden. 

Hawthorne's The Great Stone Face, The Great Carbun- 
cle, A Rill from the Town Pump, and The House of the 
Seven Gables. 

Longfellow's Evangeline, Hiawatha, Robert of Sicily, 



The Age of Longfellow 501 

Paul Revere's Ride, The Birds of Killing worth, The Skele- 
ton in Armor, The Belfry of Bruges. The Day is Done, 
The Psalm of Life, My Lost Youth, and The Hanging of 
the Crane. 

Whittier's Snowbound, Barclay of Ury, Maud Muller, 
Barbara Frietchie, Skipper Ireson's Ride, Ichabod, The 
Barefoot Boy, The Schoolhouse, and The Eternal Good- 
ness. 

Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, Selections from The Big- 
low Papers, including The Courtin', and essays on Chaucer, 
Shakespeare, Pope, Keats, Emerson, and Witchcraft. 

Holmes's Old Ironsides, The Chambered Nautilus, Bal- 
lad of the Oysterman, Deacon's Masterpiece, and selections 
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. 

Whitman's Song of Myself, I Hear America Singing, Man- 

NAHATTA, PlONEERS O PlONEERS, GlVE Me THE SPLENDID 

Silent Sun, O Captain My Captain, Darest Thou Xow O 
Soul, Death's Valley, and The Mystic Trumpeter. 

Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech, two Inaugurals, Gettys- 
burg Address, and Letters to Horace Greeley and Mrs. Bixby. 

Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe or The Oregon Trail. 

Hale's Man Without a Country. 

Sufficient selections for an introduction to other authors in- 
cluded in this chapter will be found in such collections as Three 
Centuries of American Poetry and Prose and Stedman's 
American Anthology. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. Wilson's Division and Re- 
union, 1829-1889, covers the history of the period. The his- 
tories by McMasters and Rhodes are recommended for more 
exhaustive study. For the literary history the works by Rich- 
ardson, Trent, and Wendell are recommended. Also Stedman's 
Poets of America, Erskine's Leading American Novelists, 
Brownell's American Prose Masters, Mrs. Fields's Authors and 
Friends, and Howells's Literary Friends and Acquaintance. 



CHAPTER III 
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY 

The Age of Longfellow had practically passed by 
1890. It is true that many of the writers who had only 
just begun their careers at that time and who continued 
to produce in the twentieth century were rooted firmly 
in the older traditions. Mark Twain, Aldrich, Henry 
James, and others might as well be associated with the 
earlier as with the later period. By 1890, however, there 
were unmistakable signs, if not of a new age, at least of 
the passing of the elder time. All of the great authors 
of Longfellow's day except Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, 
and Whitman were dead; and Holmes, who was the last 
of these to go, died within four years. Even the older 
writers at the turn of the century, such men as Ho wells 
and Mark Twain, were born late enough to show points 
of contact with a newer period; while younger authors, 
such as Moody and O. Henry, are in the very center of it. 

This new period, of course, has hardly reached its ful- 
ness yet. At all events it has produced so far very little 
great literature. It is therefore difficult to characterize 
it at all accurately; but two or three obvious features 
should be noted. 

In the first place, a great diversity is noticeable. The 
center of literary production has not only moved out of 

502 



The Turn of the Century 503 

New England, but it has split up, so to speak, into a great 
many centers; and few of these, except New York City, 
the Middle West, and the California coast, are constant 
enough to be called centers at all. In almost every part of 
the country, nowadays, there are men and women with 
the ability, the leisure, and the will to write. The old 
days of a civilized fringe on the Atlantic seaboard and a 
wilderness west of it have passed. This condition of 
diversity, and therefore of the scattering and disappear- 
ance of the New England tradition, was well established 
by 1900. Many profess to discern a new union of lit- 
erary forces on a gigantic scale, an American national- 
ism as opposed to a New England or Virginia sectional- 
ism, but this latest phase, though it is undoubtedly in the 
air, has not yet crystallized sufficiently to produce great 
literature. One of the things that most impressed Mr. 
Lowes Dickinson, the Oxford scholar, on a recent visit to 
America, was the isolation of scholars and literati; there 
was no center, as London for the Englishman or Paris 
for the Frenchman. 

In spite of this diversity, however, there has developed, 
with the passing of the New England tradition, and its 
close connection with the tradition of Old England, at 
least an un-English, if not positively an American, char- 
acter in the writings produced in America. Some of the 
signs of this are the increase of the dry humor already 
seen in Lincoln ; a sort of crispness and business-like 
brevity; and a tendency to write for and to read news- 
papers and magazines rather than books. Further, the 
so-called " new poetry " has been more popular in Amer- 
ica than elsewhere; and the great vogue of motion pic- 



504 A History of American Literature 

tures should be noticed — not so much because they are 
literature, as because of their influence on literature. 

Other characteristics — the city interest and the pass- 
ing of the old farm interest, the growth of drama, and 
the success of the short story — are not peculiar to Amer- 
ica, but are striking features of the period. The short 
story, suited to busy, modern times and adapted to maga- 
zine publication, has been especially well developed in the 
United States. 

BRET HARTE (1839-1902). 

Bret Harte was one of the greatest of American short 
story writers. In addition, he represents, far better than 
his imitators, the writers who have laid the scenes of 
their stories among the early mining-camps of the Rockies 
and the Sierras. 

Life. Francis Bret Harte was born at Albany, Xew 
York, in 1839, but at the age of fifteen went to California 
with his widowed mother. In the West he tried his hand 
at a great variety of occupations — teaching, mining, 
work as express messenger — but none of them proved 
successful except writing. Before he left the West, at 
the age of thirty-two, he had written the best of his short 
stories. In the East he lectured for a while; then in 1878 
went to Germany as a consul and soon afterwards to a 
similar post at Glasgow. After his removal from the 
consulship in 1885, he resided in England, where he 
continued to write till his death in 1902. 

Works. Of all Bret Harte's twenty-eight volumes, 
two or three — especially The Luck of Roaring Camp 
and Tales of the Argonauts — contain his best work. 



The Turn of the Century 505 

His great short stories, such as The Luck of Roaring 
Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, and Tennessee's 
Partner picture vividly characters that have taken their 
place with the chief names of fiction. " Stumpy/' " Ken- 
tuck," VMr. Oakhurst," " Higgles/ ' and "Old Man 
Plunkett " have become almost as familiar and imperish- 
able figures as " Rip Van Winkle," " Mr. Micawber," and 
" Tom Sawyer." These great characters of Bret Harte's 
stories are brought out partly by the author's skill in 
description, but chiefly by the narrative as it goes along 
and by the language put into their mouths. ' There, 
now, steady, ' Jinny/ " says Tennessee's Partner to his 
donkey, — " steady, old girl. How dark it is! Look out 
for the ruts, — and look out for him, too, old gal. Some- 
times, you know, when he's blind drunk, he drops down 
right in the trail. Keep on straight up to the pine on the 
top of the hill. Thar — I told you so ! — thar he is, — 
coming this way, too, — all by himself, sober, and his face 
a-shining. Tennessee! Pardner!" This speech, also, 
ending as it does the story of Tennessee's Partner's devo- 
tion to the worthless but lovable Tennessee, brings out 
another strong point in Harte's stories : he knew how to 
give his stories a touch of real pathos, and in so doing 
he taught a great lesson — sympathy and love for the 
outcast, and the outcast redeemed by sympathy and love. 
He showed hopefully that kindness and heroism are at 
bottom in everyone — even in that picturesque gambler 
and outcast, Mr. Oakhurst. 



506 A History of American Literature 



SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS (1835-1910) 

Mark Twain, the familiar pen-name of Samuel Clem- 
ens, was one of America's greatest humorists. He him- 
self detested being considered a mere humorist, and many 
of his works have a serious purpose. Often his humor 
was used to satirical effect ; but the world knows him best 

as the creator of " Tom 
Sawyer " and " Huck 
Finn " and portrayer of 
life along the Mississippi 
River. Fond of mere 
fun, of practical jokes, he 
had also an abundance of 
the rarer humor, like Bret 
Harte's, which borders on 
pathos. His books not 
only make you laugh, 
they make you feel as 
well; they picture real 
persons and real scenes. 
Life. Born in Flor- 
ida, Missouri, and 
brought up in the neigh- 
boring town of Hannibal, Mark Twain was from the 
start familiar with the life which he later depicted 
so well. After a scanty education, he was appren- 
ticed to a printer at the age of thirteen, a trade which 
he followed for upwards of eight years. In 1857 
he decided to become a pilot on the Mississippi ; and, 
though most of his life shows him to have been dreamy 




MARK TWAIN IN FROXT OF HIS 
BOYHOOD HOME 



The Turn of the Century 507 

and unpractical, he succeeded in learning accurately the 
twelve-hundred miles of river between St. Louis and New 
Orleans. After eighteen months he was made a regular 
pilot, an occupation to which he held till the outbreak of 
the Civil War stopped most of the Mississippi traffic. It 
was in this life on the river, he says, that he met most of 
the characters he put into his books. After a brief en- 
listment with Confederate forces, he resigned and went 
to Nevada as secretary to his Unionist brother, Orion. 
For six or seven years he remained in the far West, 
where for a while he attempted mining. Soon, how- 
ever, he began writing for the Virginia City Enterprise 
and other Western papers. It was at this time that he 
adopted the pen name " Mark Twain," a Mississippi 
River term, used in making soundings. In 1865, his 
Jumping Frog, published in the New York Saturday 
Press, won him immediate fame, and from then on he 
accepted writing as his calling. After a good deal of 
travelling, recorded in such books as The Innocents 
Abroad (1869), he settled at Hartford, Connecticut, in 
1 87 1. Roughing It, an account of his mining days in 
the West, appeared in 1872; Tom Sawyer, in 1875 ; The 
Prince and the Pauper, in 1882; Life on the Mississippi, 
in 1883; and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 
1884. These and other books sold enormously, but the 
failure in 1894 of the publishing house of Webster and 
Company, in which Mark Twain had a large interest, 
left him with a debt of nearly one hundred thousand 
dollars. Like Walter Scott, he set himself the task of 
writing the debt off; and, though the struggle was a hard 
one, in spite of his great success as a lecturer both in 



508 A History of American Literature 

America and abroad, — for his home was visited by both 
sickness and death, — he had cleared the debt, dollar for 
dollar, by 1897. 

By this time Mark Twain had become an international 
figure. After a good deal of residence abroad, chiefly in 
England, Austria, and Italy, with brief periods in New 
York, he built himself a fine house at Redding, Connecti- 
cut, in 1908. Two years later he died. 

Of the publications after Huckleberry Finn, the chief 
are: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court 
(1889); Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894); Joan of Arc 
(1896); and The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg 
(1900). 

Works. Mark Twain showed, in The Jumping 
Frog, that he could write an excellent short story, but in 
both his shorter and longer narratives, it is usually not 
the story that counts so much as the characters and the 
scenes, and the droll humor which reveals them. For this 
reason such books as Life on the Mississippi and Rough- 
ing It have the same charm, in large measure, that Tom 
Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have. Life itself was a 
picturesque and moving story to Mark Twain. These 
four books (though Joan of Arc was his favorite) show 
the best of his writing. They picture vividly and humor- 
ously the life which he knew at first-hand. In them, too, 
his hatred of sham and hypocrisy is revealed, but, just 
because of the entertaining scenes, the exposure of sham 
does not approach preaching, as in some of his later 
works. 

The humor for which Mark Twain is famous is well 
illustrated by a remark of his when Oxford conferred 



The Turn of the Century 509 

upon him the degree of Doctor of Literature in 1907. 
" I don't know why they should give me a degree like 
that/' he said ; " I never doctored any literature. I 
wouldn't know how." The same sort of humor came out 
even when he intended a serious rebuke. Answering a 
lady, who wished to publish an interview she had with 
him and who sent him a copy of her intended article, he 
wrote: " It reads pretty poorly — I get the sense of it, 
but it is a poor literary job. . . . Approximations, synop- 
sized speeches, translated poems, artificial flowers and 
chromos all have a sort of value, but it is small. If you 
had put upon paper what I really said, it would have 
wrecked your type-machine. ... I said nothing for 
print. My own report of the same conversation reads 
like Satan roasting a Sunday school." In these few 
sentences we see the real Mark Twain, roundly condemn- 
ing sham, saving the condemnation by his humor, but by 
the same humor making the rebuke all the keener. Such 
sincerity and humor, coupled with the power of portray- 
ing the picturesque life of the Mississippi River, make the 
strength of his greatest books. Americans will always 
love those incorrigible but genuine little rascals, Tom 
Sawyer and Huck Finn, — real boys, bad boys, but at bot- 
tom good boys. 

OTHER WRITERS 

FICTION 

William Dean Howells, born in 1837, is one of the 
most distinguished literary figures of the present day. 
Printer-trained, like Franklin and Mark Twain, he turned 
to editorial work, in which he achieved great distinction. 



510 A History of American Literature 

For a while editor of the Atlantic Monthly, he became 
later associated with the Nation and Harper's Magazine. 
Born and brought up in Ohio, he has spent the greater 
part of his life in the East, and the scenes of his novels 
are frequently laid in New England. It is in his novels, 
in fact, that his greatest claim to fame rests. Among 

many well-written stories, The 
Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), 
is probably the best. It shows 
with great likeness to the truth 
the solid virtues and social 
crudities of the American self- 
made man. Perhaps it is the 
most typical great novel of 
modern American life. How- 
ells' strength lies in his deal- 
ing faithfully with the ordi- 
william dean howells nary facts of everyday life. 
In this respect he represents the modern reaction against 
the more romantic and idealistic novels of earlier times, 
but in the solidity and grace of his style reveals the best 
elements of the older prose. 

Henry James (1843-1916), of American parentage 
and birth, spent a large part of his life in England, so 
that he may be claimed by one country almost as much 
as the other. The keen analysis of character and the rich 
vocabulary of his earlier novels and short stories gave 
him before he was forty a high place among American 
novelists. The best of his early works are A Passionate 
Pilgrim (1875), Roderick Hudson (1875), and Daisy 
Miller ( 1878). As he grew older, his interest in intricate 




The Turn of the Century 511 

questions of psychology increased and with it he devel- 
oped a style far too complicated for the average reader. 
The Wings of a Dove (1902) and The Golden Bowl 
(1904) are characteristic of his later style. 1 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), famous for 
the Story of a Bad Boy (1870) and Marjoric Daw 
(1873), had a delightful style and a rich vein of humor. 
He was for nine years editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 
and wrote well in both prose and verse. Unlike Howells, 
he did not represent a newer fiction, but was the natural 
successor of Lowell and Holmes. 

Another humorist, most distinctively American, was 
the Georgian, Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), who 
has won immortal fame by his Uncle Remus stories, four 
volumes (1880-1905) in negro dialect. Negro dialect 
has been written successfully by others, but none has 
drawn a negro character the equal of old Uncle Remus. 

Among later writers of fiction, Edith Wharton, born 
in 1862, is distinguished both for her analysis of char- 
acter and for her exquisitely polished style. Ethan 
Frome, The Valley of Decision, and The Fruit of the 
Tree are among her best novels. 

One of the striking developments of modern writing 
has been in the short story — nowhere more so than in 
America. " O. Henry" (Sydney Porter, 1867-1910) 
in The Four Million, Roads of Destiny, and other vol- 
umes of short stories, won great popularity, if not endur- 
ing fame, in this field. His stories frequently lack taste, 
social as well as literary, but they have a brevity, interest, 

1 An interesting comparison may be worked out between the 
growth of mannerisms in Henry James and Robert Browning. 



512 A History of American Literature 

and cleverness which are characteristic of the modern 
magazine story — a type rarely better done than by " O. 
Henry." 

HISTORY AND ESSAY 

History and the Essay have been represented by a 
great number of capable writers during recent times, 
even if the shoes of Irving, Emerson. Lowell, and Pres- 
cott have not been entirely filled. John Fiske I 1S42- 
1901), well known for his Critical Period of American 
History and other volumes of history and philosophical 
essays, is the most substantial writer in this field. He 
belongs in large measure with the preceding age, but he 
lived long enough to carry over, with such men as John 
Hay and Henry Cabot Lodge, the dignity of thought and 
expression familiar to the readers of Prescott and Motley. 

Theodore Roosevelt, born in 1858, and. like other 
American statesmen, more famous as a public figure than 
as a writer, has also won distinction in the historical field. 
His style lacks the careful structure and dignity of that 
of many historians, but his vigor, sense of fact, and wide 
information make many 01 his books, especially 7 lie 
Wifining of the JVest, both valuable and interesting. 

John Burroughs, born in 1837, well known as a 
naturalist and champion of the simple life, has developed 
a style charming in its simplicitv and sincerity. He com- 
bines in a happy way the idealism and love of nature 
reminiscent of Thoreau and the transcendentalists with a 
practical modern sense for the importance of common- 
place* things. Locusts and Wild Honey is one of his 
best books. 



The Turn of the Century 513 

Born in Greece, of Irish and Greek parents, and resi- 
dent for a large part of his life in Japan, Lafcadio 
Hearn (1850-1904) belongs to American literature only 
because he wrote in English in America. The grace of 




JOHN BURROUGHS 



his style and the vividness of his descriptions, particularlv 
in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, as well as his remark- 
able sympathy with the East, set him apart as unique 



among American authors. 



POETRY 

" Where are your poets ? " was a question put a few 
years ago to an American audience. The question, which 
raised a storm of rather feeble replies, was a merited re- 
buke to a life too busy and matter-of-fact to produce 



514 A History of American Literature 



& 



great poetry. The men of imagination in America have 
latterly been building subways, great railroads, and the 
Panama Canal. Within very recent years, however, 
there has been a renewed interest in poetry. In 1895 
verse was written by only a few and found a small read- 
ing public; by 191 5 a great number of poets and readers 
of poetry had appeared. 

Among the earlier of modern poets should be noted 
James Whitcomb Riley (1853-1917), chiefly success- 
ful in dialect of the Indiana 
farmer-boy, but primarily a fa- 
vorite because his poems, whether 
in dialect or not, speak directly 
and cheerfully to the human 
heart. The Old Swimmiri Hole 
(1883) and Afterwhiles (1887) 
contain some of his best verse. 

Eugene Field (1850-1895), 
both in poems of childhood and 
in poems of rough Western life 
expressed himself charmingly or 

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY * ^ . n i- 

amusingly. Occasionally his pa- 
thos is very real, and his humor is frequently delightful, 
but the latter sometimes gets the better of the former in 
just the wrong place; it makes the reader feel that the 
pathos, after all, is only skin-deep. A Little Book of 
Western Verse and Second Book of Verse are his best 
volumes. Little Boy Blue and Casey's Tabble Dote are 
perhaps his best-known poems. 

Edwin Markham, born in 1852, is famous chiefly for 
one poem, The Man with the Hoe, but that poem is one 




The Turn of the Century 515 

of the greatest of recent times. It represents, with ter- 
ribly compressed emotion, the great social and industrial 
upheavals which are shaping in the world of to-day and 
is expressed in blank verse hardly surpassed by an Amer- 
ican since Bryant's Thanatopsis. Suggested by Millet's 
famous picture, it begins, — 

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans 

Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, 

The emptiness of ages in his face, 

And on his back the burden of the world. 

Who made him dead to rapture and despair, 

A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, 

Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox? 

Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? 

Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? 

Whose breath blew out the light within this brain ? 

And the poem concludes, — 

O masters, lords, and rulers in all lands, 
How will the Future reckon with this Man? 
How answer his brute question in that hour 
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world? 
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings — 
With those who shaped him to the thing he is — 
When this dumb Terror shall reply to God, 
After the silence of the centuries? 

William Vaughn Moody (1869-1910) was not 
only a poet of ability, but marked the beginning of the 
revival of interest in better drama. His Ode in Time of 
Hesitation is one of his best poems ; The Masque of Judo- 
ment is a poetic drama: and The Great Divide, a prose 
melodrama, has been acted with notable success. 



5 16 A History of American Literature 

ADDITIONAL WRITERS 

In such brief compass it is impossible to give details of 
the work of a great number of authors of merit. It is 
difficult, too, at such close range, to judge fairly of the 
merits, to say just who should be included. Neverthe- 
less, certain writers, in addition to those just discussed, 
should be mentioned even in a brief account, if only by 
name, partly as a suggestion for further reading, partly 
as an indication of the quantity of good, if not great, 
literature written during the past twenty-five years. 

In fiction some of the more important names are : S. 
Weir Mitchell; Mrs. Mary Freeman (Miss Wil- 
kins) ; George W. Cable; F. Marion Crawford; Rich- 
ard Harding Davis; Paul Leicester Ford; Thomas 
Nelson Page; Sarah Orne Jewett ; Hamlin Gar- 
land; Owen Wister; Henry Van Dyke; Winston 
Churchill; Jack London; and Booth Tarkixgton. 

In history and essay: Edmund C. Stedman ; Henry 
Cabot Lodge; William Winter; Paul Elmer More; 
Samuel McC. Crothers ; Agnes Repplier ; George E. 
Woodberry; Woodrow Wilson; and John J. Chap- 
man. 

In poetry: John Hay; Joaquin Miller; Madison 
J. Cawein ; John B. Tabb ; Richard Hovey ; Henry 
Van Dyke; George E. Woodberry; Richard Watson 
Gilder; S. Weir Mitchell; Robert U. Johnson; Ed- 
win A. Robinson; Paul L. Dunbar; Percy W. 
Mackaye; Robert Frost; and Vachell Lindsay. 

In drama: Clyde Fitch; Josephine Preston Pea- 
body (Mrs. Marks) ; Augustus Thomas; Edward 



The Turn of the Century 517 

Sheldon; Percy W. Mackaye; and Booth Tark- 

INGTON". 

CONCLUSION 

In a glance backward over the course of American lit- 
erature we note the strong Puritan inheritance in its 
beginnings and the tendency, in later Colonial times, to 
oratorical prose. The greatest American literature, we 
have seen, covered only about a century. From Bryant 
to the present day is a shorter period than from Shakes- 
peare to Pope. During this century, however, Ameri- 
cans produced great, if not always distinctively American, 
literature. At the same time, but more noticeably later, 
certain striking American characteristics — brevity, sense 
of fact, humor of a special kind — began to color the lit- 
erature and gave it distinctive features. 

At the present time one of the most striking points is 
the quantity and diversity of our literature. Quite re- 
cently moving pictures, and in a less degree newspapers 
and magazines, catering to the public taste, have tended 
to relieve the public, not only of all effort of thought — 
a serious defect — , but of all effort of imagination — a 
fatal defect from a literary and artistic point of view. 
The times are ripe, with a growing sense of nationalism, 
and with a large number of writers and readers, for a 
great renaissance in American literature. Signs of it 
may already be discerned in poetry and drama. At the 
same time, it must be remembered that important litera- 
ture is more than ideas and feelings clearly expressed ; it 
is great ideas and great feelings greatly expressed. This 
implies, above all, imagination, which in literature should 



518 A History of American Literature 

mean an appeal to the ear as well as to the eye, and which 
should mean an eagerness on the part of the reader for 
literature where more is meant than meets either ear or 
eye. Until the public shows such an eagerness, American 
literature will probably continue to be remarkable, as it 
is to-day, for its quantity rather than its quality. 

BOOKS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
READING. 

[Note. Though selections from the works of modern authors 
are not always readily accessible, their publications, in separate 
volumes, are on booksellers' lists and can be procured easily. 
The following notes, therefore, attempt to mention only a few 
standard editions and a few standard collections.] 

LITERATURE. Three Centuries of American Poetry and 
Prose (Scott Foresman) and Stedman's American Anthology 
(Houghton Mifflin) contain the best of the briefer literature of 
all but very recent times. Representative American Plays 
(Century) is useful in studying the development of modern 
drama. 

Bret Harte. Life by Pemberton (Dodd, Mead). Works 
published by Houghton Mifflin. 

Mark Twain. Autobiography ; Howell's My Mark Twain; 
Letters edited by A. B. Paine (Harper). Works published by 
Harper. 

The complete works of Henry James are published by Scrib- 
ner ; those of O. Henry by Doubleday, Page. 

SUGGESTED READINGS. 

Bret Harte's Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of 
Poker Flat, Miggles, Tennessee's Partner, and How Santa 
Claus Came to Simpson's Bar. 

Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and selec- 
tions from Life on the Mississippi, Joan of Arc, Pudd'nhead 



The Turn of the Century 519 

Wilson, The Jumping Frog, and The Prince and the Pau- 
per. 

Aldrich's Marjorie Daw, Harris's Uncle Remus and His 
Friends, Howell's Silas Lapham, James's Daisy Miller and 
A Passionate Pilgrim, Edith Wharton's Valley of Decision, 
Tarkington's Monsieur Beaucaire, S. W. Mitchell's Hugh 
Wynne, Wister's The Virginian, Cable's Old Creole Days, 
Page's Marse Chan, Lew Wallace's Ben Hur, Crawford's A 
Cigarette Maker's Romance, and O. Henry's Four Million 
and The Trimmed Lamp. 

Selections from Roosevelt's Winning of the West, Cro- 
thers's Pardoner's Wallet, Hearn's Unfamiliar Japan, 
Fiske's Critical Period of American History, and Winter's 
Gray Days and Gold. 

Selected poems from Stedman's American Anthology and 
Rittenhouse's Book of American Verse. Particular attention 
may be given to Riley, Field, Markham, Moody, S. W. Mitchell, 
Hovey, John Hay, Tabb, Gilder, Woodberry, and Van Dyke. 

HISTORY, CRITICISM, ETC. No adequate account of 
very modern times has been, or could be, written. The beginner 
would do well to read the main facts in a brief school history, — 
Muzzey (Ginn) and Forman (Century) are recommended, — 
and then to supplement by magazine reading (Consult Poole's 
Index) and a liberal use of standard encyclopedias. The same 
may be said of the literary history. Valuable additional books 
are Alden's Magazine Writing and The New Literature, 
Canby's A Study of the Short Story, the histories of literature 
by Trent and by Wendell, and Pattee's A History of American 
Literature Since 18/0 (Century). 



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INDEX 



INDEX 



Absalom and Achitophel, by 

John Dryden, 203 
Accent in English verse, 421 
Acts and Monuments or Book 

of Martyrs, by John Foxe, 101 
Adam Bcde, by George Eliot, 

394 

Addison, Joseph, brilliant essay- 
ist, 223 ; his life, 223 ; portrait, 
224; The Campaign, 224, 227; 
opera Rosamond, 225; drama 
Cato, 225, 227; writings for 
The Tatler and The Spectator, 
22s, 228; his political writings, 
225, 226 

Addison's walk, Oxford, 226 

Adonais, by Shelley, 324, 326, 327 

Advancement of Learning, by 
Francis Bacon, 151, 153 

^ilfric, his Homilies, 25 

Alastor, by Shelley, 324 

Alchemist, The, by Ben Jonson, 
164 

Alexander's Feast, by John Dry- 
den, 204 

Alfred, King, statue of, 23 ; fa- 
ther of Old English prose, 22, 
26; his literary work, 25; gave 
part of Bible to West Saxons 
in their own tongue, 43 

All's Well that Ends Well, by 
Shakespeare, 127, 133 

Amelia, by Henry Fielding, 260 

Ancient Mariner, by Coleridge, 

307, 311. 
Ancren Riwle, one of best prose 
writings in Middle Ages, 

34 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 15, 27; 

King Alf red's work on, 25 
Anglo-Saxons, origin of name, 

.3; their invasion of Britain. 3, 



27; personal characteristics, 4, 
5 ; language, 5 ; foreign addi- 
tions to language, 6, 7 ; lacked 
a national sense, 26 

Antony and Cleopatra, by Shake- 
speare, 127, 133 

Apologie for Poetrie, by Sir 
Philip Sidney, 97 

Arcades, by Milton, 178 

Arcadia, by Sir Philip Sidney, 
98, 100, 145 

Areopagitica, by Milton, contains 
his best prose, 179, 185 

Arnold, Edwin, 396 

Arnold, Matthew, attacked the 
intellectual narrowness and 
self-sufficiency of Englishmen, 
3?i, 383, 384;. portrait, 382; 
his life, 381 ; discussion of his 
works, 383; a master of lucid 
prose, 381, 385 ; his poetry, 382, 
383; Sohrab and Rust urn, 382, 
383; The Scholar-Gypsy, 382, 
383 ; Philomela, 382; Essays in 
Criticism, 383 ; Culture and 
Anarchy, 383, 384; Friend- 
ship's Garland, 383, 384; Lit- 
erature and Dogma, 383 ; God 
and the Bible, 383; Requiescat, 
384 

Arthur and Merlin, based on old 
British legends, 40 

Arthurian legends, 36, 38; Geof- 
frey of Monmouth first re- 
sponsible for popularity of, 39 ; 
Gazcain and the Green Knight. 
the best, 40; Malory's Morte 
Darthur popular book, 68, 69 

As You Like It, bv Shakespeare, 
133, 138 

Ascham, Roger, his Toxophilus 
and Scholcmastcr, 82, 83 



Index 



Astrolabe, Use of, bv Chaucer, 
56 

Astrophel and Stella, sonnets, by 
Sir Philip Sidney, 97 

Atalanta in Calydon, by Swin- 
burne, 396 

Attack on Finnsburg, Old Eng- 
lish epic. 15 

Austen. Jane, 335 

Ayenbite of J nicy t, Michael of 
Xorthgate's, 35 

Bacon, Francis, greatest thinker 
of Elizabethan Age. 146 ; por- 
trait of. 147: his life, 146; hrst 
great writer of true English 
prose, 145 ; his Essays, 150, 
153; Advancement of Learn- 
ing, 151, 153; Novum Or- 
ganum, 151: History of the 
Reign of Henry VII, 152; 
New Atlantis, 152, 153 

Baconian theory concerning 
Shakespeare, 132 

Baeda. his Ecclesiastical History, 
and Translation of the Gospel 
of St. John, 22, 25. 33 

Ballad, characteristics of- the, 

'410 

Ballad stanza, characteristics of, 
426 

Ballads, fifteenth century, or- 
igins. 64, 65 : communal na- 
ture. 66; Robin Hood. 67; 
Hunting of the Cheviot, 6~ ; 
Three Ravens. 67: Wife of 
Ushers Well, 67: Sir Patrick 
Spens, 67; Johnnie Armstrong, 

67. 

Barbour. John, his The Bruce, 

6 3 
Barnaby Rudge, by Dickens, 386 

Bartholomew Fair, by Ben Jon- 
son, 164 

Battle of Brunanburgh, Old 
English poem. 15. 25 

Battle of Maldon, Ofd English 
poem, 15, 25 

Battle of the Books, by Jonathan 
Swift. 218. 222 

Beaumont, Francis, portrait of. 



106: his association with John 
Fletcher, their plays Maid's 
Tragedy, Phiiaster, and Knight 
of the Burning Pestle, 107 

Bennett, Arnold, 400 

Beowulf, Old English epic, 
origin. 9. 13 ; facsimile of nrst 
page, 11; outline of story. 13. 

Bible, words chiefly of old 
English origin, 7; King Al 
fred gave part of to West 
Saxons m their own tongue, 
43: Wiclif's translation. 43: 
Tyndale's translation. 43. 82; 
King James version and its 
influence on English pro-e 
style. 154 

Bibliographical lists, general. 
433; the Anglo-Saxons. 28: 
from Xorman Conquest to 
Chaucer. 48: Age of Chaucer. 
73 : the Renaissance. 86 : Age 
of Elizabeth, 158 : Seventeenth 
Century, 210: Eighteenth Cen- 
tury, 276 ; Age of Roman- 
ticism, 339 ; Victorian Age. 
406 

Biography, definition of, 418 

Blank verse, flrst English, by 
Earl of Surrey. 83 : champion- 
ship of. by Christopher Mar- 
lowe. 118, 131; Milton's, 191; 
use of term. 427 

Bleak House, by Dickens. 389 

Boethius. his Consolation of 
Philosophy, 25 ; translated by 
Chaucer. 56 

Boke of the Duchesse, by Chau- 
cer, 55 

Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe. 
101 

Book of Snobs, by Thackeray. 

39 1 

Boswell. James, biographer of 
Samuel Johnson. 244, 251 

Britain, story of. Layamons 
Brut, 32, 33: Geoffrey's His- 
toria Regum Britanniae, 39; 
Holinshed's Chronicle, 102; 
Stowe's Chronicle, 102 



Index 



Broken Heart, The, by John 

Ford, 168 
Bronte, Charlotte, 396, 403 
Browning, Elizabeth, 396, 403 
Browning, Robert, the scholar's 
poet, 358; portrait, 358; his 
bfe, 359; discussion of his 
works, 361 ; presents truth 
from many points of view, 
358, 363; complex, not obscure, 
358, 361; Paracelsus, 359; his 
plays, 359; Sordello, 359; 
Statue and the Bust, 360; Men 
and IV omen, 360; Ring and 
the Book, 360, 362; Abt Vog- 
ler, 361, 363 ; Rabbi Ben Ezra, 
361, 363; Epilogue to Aso- 
lando, 361 ; Child e Roland 
to the Dark Tower Came, 

364 
Bruce, The, by John Barbour, 

6 3 
Brut, Layamon's, 32, 33 
Brut d'Angleterre, Wace's, 33 
Bunyan, John, his life, 192 ; por- 
trait, 193; his Grace Abound- 
ing- 195 5 Pilgrim's Progress, 
191, 196 
Burke, Edmund, his life, 257; his 
oratorical prose, 258 ; The 
Sublime and the Beautiful. 
257; Dodsley's Annual Regis- 
ter, 257; Conciliation with 
America. 258 
Burns, Robert, portrait. 267; 
birthplace, 269; monument to, 
at Edinburgh, 272 ; his life. 
267: Cotter's Saturday Night, 
268, 270; The Jolly Beggars, 
268; Tarn O'Slianter, 270; his 
songs, 271 
Byron, George Gordon Noel, 
" The arch-apostle of revolt," 
315; portrait, 316; his life, 
316; discussion of his works, 
320; view of Newstead Abbey, 
318: Childe Harold, 318. 320, 
321 ; Manfred, 319, 321 ; Tasso. 
319: Mazcppa, 319. 321; Don 
Juan, 319, 321; Prisoner of 
Chill on, 321 



Caedmon, first of religious 
poets, 18, 19 

Calvinism, 172 

Campaign, The, poem by Addi- 
son, 224, 227 

Campbell, Thomas, Pleasures of 
Hope and battle poems, 336 

Canterbury Cathedral, view of, 
53 

Canterbury pilgrims, pictures of, 
62, 63 

Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's 
greatest work, 56, 58, 59; plan 
of, 61 ; his vivid character- 
drawing, 52, 58, 61 

Captain Singleton, by Defoe, 241 

Carlyle, Thomas, portrait, 369 : 
view of his birthplace, 371 ; 
his life, 371 ; discussion of his 
works, 374; his message, 371, 
375 ; his greatest work in in- 
terpretative history, 373 ; his 
style, 374, 375; Sartor Resar- 
tus, 372, 375; French Revolu- 
tion, 373 ; Heroes and Hero- 
W or ship, 373 ; Past and Pres- 
ent, 373* 375', Cromwell's Let- 
ters and Speeches, 373; Life of 
John Sterling, 373; Reminis- 
cences, 373 

Catiline, by Ben Jonson, 164 

Cato, drama by Addison, 225, 
227 

Caxton, William, his History of 
Troy the first printed English 
book, 69; he printed Malory's 
Morte Darthur, 69; set up 
press at Westminster, 69 ; pic- 
ture of Earl Rivers presenting 
his book and Caxton to Ed- 
ward IV, 79 

Cesura, in English verse, 424 

Changeling, The, by Thomas 
Middleton, 167 

Chapman, George, his transla- 
tion of Homer, 98 

Charms, Old English, 17 

Chaucer, age of, climax of Mid- 
dle Age in England, 50; in- 
cludes the fifteenth centurv. 
51 



Index 



Chaucer. Geoffrey, the " Father 
oi English poetry." 50; his 
greatest influence, 51; his vivid 
character-drawing. 52. 58^ his 
life, 52, 50; portrait of, 33; 
first poet buried in Westmin- 
ster Abbey, 56 ; French and 
Italian influence, 55. 37, 58; 
essentials for accurate reading 
of. 37 : Canterbury Tale 
masterpiece. 36. 59. 62, 03 ; 
Boke of the Du eh esse, 33 ; 
taunt of the Rose. 33 : 
Lege)} d e f b- d IV n 1 e ; 1 . 33. 
59; Troilus and Creseyde, 56, 
58; Ho us or Fame. 50.. 58; the 
v. 50 ; translation of 
Boethius' Consolation or 
lose p It \. 50: Complexnt of 
Chaucer to his Purse. 50; fol- 
lowers of Chaucer. 62, 63 ; 
writings farther from old than 
from modern English. 29 

Chesterton. G. K.. 400 

Chit by Byron, 318. 

320. 321 

Childe Roland to the D 
i ower Came, by Browning. 

Christ, by Cynewulf. 10 

Christ Hospital. London, view 

^ of, 306 

Christmas Carol, by Dickens. 389 

Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 15. 23. 
27: Robert oi Gloucester's, 
33: Holmshed's. 102. no. 
Stowe's. 102 

Chronicle plays of the Eliza- 
bethan Age. 116 

Chronological tables, the Anglo- 
Saxons, 27 ; from Norman 
Conquest to Chaucer, 46. 47 ; 
Age of Chaucer. 71, 72: the 
Renaissance. 85 : Age of Eliza- 
beth. 156. 157: Seventeenth 
Century, 208, 209: Eighteenth 
Century. 274. 275 : Age of Ro- 
manticism, 338: Victorian Age. 
403. 404.. 405 

Clarissa Ha- j lozee. by Samuel 
Richardson, 260 



Classics, revival of interest in. 

Coffee house, scene 111 a. 210 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, por- 
trait, 305 ; his life, 300 ; dis- 
cussion of his works. 309; The 
A n cien t Marin er, 307. 311; 
Kubla Khan. 308. 311; I 
Ballads. 307. 309 

Colin Clour's L onie H : 
Again, by Edmund Spenser. 90 

Cot Errors, by Shake- 

speare. 131. 133, 134. 13;. 136, 
, 138 

1 ompleat Angler, by Isaac Wal- 
ton, 108 

Complexnt of Chaucer to his 
Purse. 50 

Comus, a masque, by Milton. 178. 
__ 183. 184 

Con - Amen 

Speech on, bv Edmund B 
2 S8 

l onfessio Amantis, by John 
Gower, the first English poem 
to be translated into foreign 
languages, (02 

Confessions of an Eng 1 
■■m-batcr, by DeQuincev, 

333 

--.on of Philosophy, by 

Boethius. 23 : translated by 
Chaucer, 56 

us, by Shakespeare. 127. 

*33 

C titer's Saturday Night, by Rob- 
ert Burns. 208, 270 

Cowper. William, portrait. 205 ; 
his poetry, 200 

Cricket on the Hearth, by Dick- 
ens. 389 

Crossing the Bar, by Tennysc 
353j 356 

C roii'ti of U dd Olive, by Rus- 
kin. 378. 380 

Culture and Anarchy, by Mat- 
thew Arnold. 383, 384 

Cursor Mundi, Middle English 
writing. 35 

Cxmbeline, bv Shakespeare.. 127, 
133 



Index 



Cynewult, Old English religious 
poet, 19; Christ, 19; Dream of 
the Rood, 20; Elene, 19, 20; 
Fates of the Apostles, 19; 
Judith, 20; Juliana, 19; Wan- 
derer, 20 

Daniel Deronda, by George 
Eliot, 394 

Darwin. Charles. 396, 403 

David Copperiield, bv Dickens, 
386. 389 

Defensw Secu.nda, by Milton, 
177, 180 

Defoe, Daniel, as a fore-runner 
of the English novelists. 242; 
his life, 239; in the pillory, 
240; Robinson Crusoe, 239, 
241, 242; History of the Great 
Storm, 240, 242; Journal of the 
Plague Year, 241, 242; Cap- 
tain Singleton, 241 ; Moll Flan- 
ders, 241 

Dekker, Thomas, last of the 
Elizabethans, his plays Shoe- 
makers Holiday and Old For- 
tunatus, 166 

De Morgan, William, 400 

Deor's Lament, Old English 
poem, 16 

DeQuincey, Thomas, his life, 
331; portrait, 333; discussion 
of his works, 334 ; Confes- 
sions of an English Opium- 
eater, 333: Klosterheim, 333; 
Logic of Political Economy, 
333: Murder Considered as 
One of the Fine Arts, 333; 
Suspiria de Profundis, 333; 
The English Mail-Coach, 333, 
334; Joan of Arc, 333; Lit- 
erary Reminiscences, 333 

Description of Spring, by Earl 
of Surrey, 83 

Deserted Village, The, by Oliver 
Goldsmith, 254, 255 

Dialogues, Gregory's, 25 

Diana of the Crosszcays, by 
George Meredith, 397 

Dickens, _ Charles, portrait of, 
387 ; his life, 385 ; discussion 



of his works, 389; his power 
to create " characters " and 
"scenes," 385, 389; Sketches 
by Boz, 386; Posthumous Pa- 
pers of the l J ickwick Club, 
386; Oliver Twist, 386; Nich- 
olas Aickleby, 386; Old Curi- 
osity Shop, 386; Barnaby 
Rudge, 386; Christmas Carol, 
389; Cricket on the Hearth, 
389; Dombey and Son, 386, 
389; David Copperiield, 386, 
389; Bleak House, 389; Little 
Dorrit, 389; Tale of Two 
Cities, 389 

Dictionary of the English Lan- 
guage, by Samuel Johnson, 
246, 247 

Didactic poetry, characteristics 
of, 415 

Disraeli, B., 396, 403 

Dodsley's Annual Register writ- 
ten by Edmund Burke, 257 

Dombey and Son, bv Dickens, 
386, 389 

Don Juan, by Byron, 319, 321 

Doyle, Conan, 400 

Drama, divisions and definitions, 
413; prose drama, 417 

Drama, early, religious drama, 
105; miracles, 106 ; moralities, 
107 ; interludes, 108 

Drama. Elizabethan period, 102, 
116; its development from the 
Middle Ages, 105, 109 ; Eliza- 
bethan theater, 103, no, 113; 
fore-runners of Shakespeare, 
116; the " chronicle-play," 116; 
Shakespeare and his plays, 
119, 131; the Age of Ben Jon- 
son, 163, 166, 169; revival of 
the drama, 401 

Drayton, Michael, his Ballad of 
Agincourt, 98; Polyolbion, 08 

Dream of the Rood, by Cyne- 
wulf, 20 

Dryden, age of, 198 : one of low 
standards, 199; French influ- 
ence helped to produce Eng- 
lish prose style, 199 

Dryden, John, H he made En<r- 



Index 



lish prose," 200; his life, 200; 
portrait, 201; his power in 
satire, 203; his heroic couplet 
and his prose style, 205, 206; 
ablest critic of his time, 206; 
State of Innocence, 203; Es- 
say of Dramatic Poesy, 203, 
206; Absalom and Achitophel, 
203; MacFlecknoe, 203, 205; 
Alexander's Feast, 204 

Duchess of Malfi, The, by John 
Webster, 168 

Dunciad, by Pope, 235, 238 

Eastward Ho! by Ben Jonson, 

165 
Ecclesiastical History, by Bseda, 

22, 25, 33 _^ r 

Ecclesiastical Polity, Of the 
Laws of, by Richard Hooker, 

145 

Edward II, by Christopher Mar- 
lowe, 117, 131 

Egoist, by George Meredith, 

397 f . n 

Eighteenth century, French influ- 
ence, 213; Pope the great fig- 
ure in poetry, 215; Addison 
in prose, 215 ; birth of the 
English novel, 215, 243, 259; 
Age of Pcpe, 216; Age of 
Johnson, 242 ; Return to Na- 
ture, 261 
Elegy in a Country Churchyard, 

by Thomas Gray, 263, 264 
Elene, by Cynewulf, 19, 20 
Eliot, George (Mary Ann 
Evans), her life, 393; portrait, 
394; discussion of her works, 
394; development in her char- 
acters, 395 ; Scenes from Cler- 
ical Life, 394; Adam Bcde, 
394; Mill on the Floss, 394; 
Silas Marner, 394, 395; Ro- 
mola, 394; Felix Holt, 394; 
Middlemarch, 394; Daniel De- 
ronda, 394; her poetry, 394 
Elizabeth, age of, 87; character- 
istics, 87: Edmund Spenser, 
88 ; minor poets, 95 ; euphuistic 
style, 100; drama the greatest 



literature of the period, 102; 
development of the drama 
from the Middle Ages, 102, 
105, 163, 166, 169; Elizabethan 
theater, 103, no; fore-runners 
of Shakespeare, 116; Shake- 
speare's life and w r orks, 119; 
Francis Bacon and Elizabethan 
prose, 114; translators and 
chroniclers, 101 ; translations 
of the Bible, 153 ; poetry chief 
glory of the age, 144 ; narra- 
tive and Latin English prose, 
144, 145 ; Bacon the first great 
writer of true English prose, 

145 
Elizabeth, Queen, portrait of, 88 
Ellen's Isle, Loch Katrine, 293 
Endymion, by Keats, 328 
English Humorists, The, by 

Thackeray, 391 
English language, origins, 6, 7 
English Mail-Coach, by De- 

Quincey, 333, 334 
Enoch Arden, by Tennyson, 352 
Epic poetry, characteristics of, 

Epicce.ne, or the Silent IV man. 
by Ben Jonson, 164 

Epithalamion, by Edmund Spen- 
ser, 90, 92 

Erasmus, Dutch scholar, in Eng- 
land, 81 

Essay, characteristics of the, 417 

Essay of Dramatic Poesy, by 
John Dryden, 203, 206 

Essay on Criticism, by Pope, 233, 
234, 236, 237 

Essay on Man, by Pope, 235, 236 

Essay on Milton, by Macaulav, 
366, 368 

Essays in Criticism, by Matthew 
Arnold, 383 

Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb, 

313, 314 
Essays, of Francis Bacon, 150, 

153 
Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit, 

by John Lyly, 101 
Euphuism in the Elizabethan 
age, 100 



Index 



Eve of St. Agnes, by Keats, 329. 

330 
Every Man in his Humour, by 

Ben Jonson, 164 

Fables, by Robert Henryson, 63 

Faerie Queen, by Edmund Spen- 
ser, a picture of knighthood, 
89 90, 93, 95 

Fates of the Apostles, by Cyne- 
wulf, 19 

Faustus, Dr., by Christopher 
Marlowe, 117 

Felix Holt, by George Eliot, 394 

Fielding, Henry, early novelist, 
259; portrait, 260; Joseph An- 
drews, 260; Tom Jones, 260, 
261; Jonathan Wild, 260; 
Amelia, 260 

Finnsburg, Attack on, Old Eng- 
lish epic, 15 

Fitzgerald, Edward, 396, 403 

Fletcher, John, his association 
with Francis Beaumont, their 
plays Maid's Tragedy, Philas- 
ter, and Knight of the Burning 
Pestle, 167 ; his portrait, 168 

Ford, John, The Broken Heart, 
168 

Fors Clavigera. by Ruskin, 378, 

379 

Four Georges, The, by Thack- 
eray, 391 

Foxe, John, his Acts and Monu- 
ments or Book of Martyrs, 101 

French Revolution, by Carlyle, 

373 

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 
by Robert Greene, 117 

Friendship's Garland, by Mat- 
thew Arnold, 383, 384 

Gardens at Versailles, view of, 

215. 
Gawain and the Green Knight, 

based on old British legends, 

40 
Geoffrey of Monmouth, his His- 

toria Re gum Britanniae, 39 
Glastonbury Abbey, view of, 37 
Gnomic Verses, Old English, 17 



Goldsmith, Oliver, his life, 252; 
discussion of his works, 255; 
Vicar of Wakeiield, 254, 255; 
The Deserted Village, 234, 
255; The Good-Natured Man, 
254; She Stoops to Conquer 
254, 256 

Good-Natured Man, The, by 
Oliver Goldsmith, 254 

Gower, John, his Confessio 
Amantis the first English 
poem to be translated into for- 
eign languages, 62; effigy of, 

M 
Grail legend, development of, 68 
Gray, Thomas, his Elegy in a 

Country Churchyard, 263, 264 
Greene, Robert, his Friar Bacon 

and Friar Bungay, 117 
Gregory's Pastoral Care and 

Dialogues, 25 
Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan 

Swift, 220, 222 

Hakluyt, Richard, Voyages 
touching the Discovery of 

America, 102 
Hallam, Arthur Henry, Tenny- 
son's In Memoriam, on the 

death of, 348, 352, 354 
Hamlet, by Shakespeare, 127, 

133, 138, 139, 140 
Hardy, Thomas, 400 
Hazlitt, William, his Characters 

of^ Shakespeare's Plays, 336; 

Life of Napoleon Bonaparte 

336 
Heart of Midlothian, by Scott, 

289 
Henry Esmond, by Thackerav. 

391, 392 
Henry IV, by Shakespeare, 126 

133 
Henry J 7 , by Shakespeare, 126 

133, 137 
Henry VI, by Shakespeare, 133, 

134 
Henry VIII, bv Shakespeare, 

127, 133 
Henryson, Robert, his Fables 

and Robin and Makyne, 63 



Index 



Herbert, George, his religious 
poetry, 170, 171 

Hero and Leander, by Chris- 
topher Marlowe, 118 

Heroes and Hero-Worship, by 
Carlyle, 373 

Heroic verse, 427 

Herrick, Robert, his pastoral po- 
etry, 170; facsimile of frontis- 
piece of first edition of his 
works, 169; his Hesperides, 
170 

Hesperides, by Robert Herrick, 
170 

Heywood, Thomas, his A 
Woman Killed with Kindness, 

167 

Historia Regum Britanniae , by 
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 39 

History, definition of, 418 

History of England, by Macau- 
lay, 366 

History of the Great Storm, by 
Defoe, 240, 242 

History of the Reign of Henry 
VII, by Francis Bacon; 152 

History of Troy, by William 
Caxton, the first printed Eng- 
lish book, 69 

Hoccleve, Thomas, follower of 
Chaucer, 63 

Holinshed, Raphael, his Chron- 
icle, 102, 116 

Holy Living and Holy Dying, 
by Jeremy Taylor, 197 

Hooker, Richard, his Of the 
Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 

T 45 . 

Horatius at the Bridge, by Ma- 
cau lay, 367 

Hous of Fame, by Chaucer, 56, 

58 

Housman, A. E., 401 

Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey, 
introduced sonnet into Eng- 
lish literature, 83 ; he wrote 
first English blank verse, S3 ; 
his Description of Spring, 83 

Humphrey Clinker, by T. G. 
Smollett, 261 

Hunt, Leigh, The Examiner, 336 



Hunting of the Cheviot, or the 

ballad of Chevy Chase, 67 
Huxley, T. H., 396, 405 
Hyperion, by Keats, 329 

Idyll, use of term, 414 

Idylls of the King, by Tennyson, 
352, 353 

II Penseroso, by Milton, 178, 
183 

In Memoriam, by Tennyson, 348, 
352, 354 

Interludes, " plays between," 108 

Inventions and discoveries, ef- 
fect of, 78 

Ivanhoe, by Scott, 290 

Ivry, by Macaulay, 366, 367 

James I, King, his Kingis Quair, 
63 

Jew of Malta, by Christopher 
Marlowe, 117 

Johnie Armstrong, ballad, 67 

Johnson, age of, 242; develop- 
ment of the novel and the " re- 
turn to nature/' 243 ; Samuel 
Johnson, 243 ; James Boswell, 
251; Oliver Goldsmith, 252; 
Edmund Burke, 256; Samuel 
Richardson and Henry Field- 
ing, 259; T. G. Smollett and 
Laurence Sterne, 261 

Johnson, Samuel, last of the 
" dictators," 243 ; his portrait, 
244 ; his life, . 245 ; his " club," 
244, 248, 249; Boswell, his 
biographer, 244, 251; his Dic- 
tionary of the English Lan- 
guage, 246, 247; The Rambler, 
a periodical, 247, 251 ; Rasselas, 
248, 251; Lives of the Poets, 
250, 251 

Jolly Beggars, by Robert Burns, 
268 

Jonathan Wild, by Henry Field- 
ing, 260 

Jonson, Ben, the first great " dic- 
tator " of English literature, 
his life, 163, 165 ; portrait of 5 
164; made poet-laureate, 165; 
burial in Westminster Abbey, 



Index 



165 ; his opposition to the Ro- 
mantic style, 163; a great 
scholar, 164; his essays Tim- 
ber or Discoveries Made upon 
Men and Matter, 165; his 
plays, 164, 165 ; Every Man in 
His Humour, 164; Volpone, or 
the Fox, 164; Epiccene, or the 
Silent Woman, 164; The Al- 
chemist, 164 ; Bartholomew 
Fair, 164; Sejanus, 164; Cati- 
line, 164 ; Eastward Ho !, 165 ; 
his testimony concerning 
Shakespeare, 129 
Joseph Andrews, by Henry 

Fielding, 260 
Journal of the Plague Year, by 

Defoe, 241, 242 
Judith, by Cynewulf, 20 
Juliana, by Cynewulf, 19 
Julius Ccesar, by Shakespeare, 
127, 133, 137, 138 

Keats, John, last of Romantic 
poets, 327; portrait, 328; his 
life, 327 ; his works, 329 ; Shel- 
ley's poem Adonais written on 
death of Keats, 324, 326, 327 ; 
Endymion, 328; Lamia, 329; 
Isabella, 329; Eve of St. Ag- 
nes, 329, 330; Hyperion, 329; 
On a Grecian Urn, 329; To a 
Nightingale, 330, 331 
Kenilworth, by Scott, 290 
Kidnapped, by Stevenson, 398 
King John, by Shakespeare, 133 
Kingis Quair, by King James I, 

63 
Kingsley, Charles, 396, 404 
Kipling, Rudyard, 400, 401 
Klosterheim, by DeQuincey, 333 
Knight of the Burning Pestle, 

by Beaumont and Fletcher, 

167 
Kubla Khan, by Coleridge, 308, 

3ii 

Lady of the Lake, by Scott, 289, 

292 
Lake School of poets, 305 
L Allegro, by Milton, 178, 182 



Lamb, Charles, " gentle humor- 
ist," 311; portrait, 312; his life, 
312; discussion of his works, 
314; Essays of Elia, 313, 314 

Lamia, by Keats, 329 

Landor, Walter Savage, Imag- 
inary Conversations, Pericles 
and Aspasia, 337 

Lay of Havelok, 37 

Lay of the Last Minstrel, by 
Scott, 286 

Layamon's Brut, 32, 33 

Lays of Ancient Rome, by Ma- 
caulay, 366, 367 

Lear, by Shakespeare, 127, 133 

Legende of Good Women, by 
Chaucer, 55, 59 

Life of John Sterling, by Car- 
ole, 373 

Literary forms. Characteristics 
of different classes of litera- 
ture, 410 

Literature and Dogma, by Mat- 
thew Arnold, 383 

Little Dorrit, by Dickens, 389 

Lives of the Poets, by Samuel 
Johnson, 250, 251 

Locke, W. J., 400 

Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, 
by Tennyson, 353 

Lovelace, Richard, his To Lu- 
casta, Going to the Wars, 170 

Love's Labour s Lost, by Shake- 
speare, 133, 136 

Ludlow Castle, 183, 184 

Lye id as, by Milton, 178, 184 

Lydgate, John, follower of Chau- 
cer, 63 

Lyly, John, his Euphues: the 
Anatomy of Wit, 101 

Lyric poetry, characteristics of, 
412 

Lytton, Bulwer, 396, 403 

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 
portrait, 365 ; his life, 365 ; 
discussion of his works, 367 ; 
his great achievement was in 

. prose, 364; his lucidity and 
vigor, 367: Essay on Slilton, 
366, 368; work for the Ency- 



Index 



clopcedia Britannica, 366; his 
poetry, 366; Armada, Ivry, 
Lays of Ancient Rome, 366, 
367; History of England, 366 

Macbeth, by Shakespeare, 127, 
133, 138, 139, 140 

MacFlecknoe, by John Dryden, 
203, 205 

Magazine, beginning of the, 
216 

Magdalen College, Oxford, view 
of, 225 

Maid's Tragedy, by Beaumont 
and Fletcher, 167 

Making of Man, by Tennyson, 

355 

Malory, Sir Thomas, his Morte 
Darthur, 68; its popularity, 
69; the last production of the 
Middle Age, 69; printed by 
Caxton, 69 

Malvern Hills, view of, 44, Piers 
Plowman country 

Manfred, by Byron, 319, 321 

Market Cross, Els tow, where 
stakes won or lost at " tip- 
cat " were paid, 195 

Marlowe, Christopher, his Ed- 
ward II, 117, 131; Tambur- 
laine, 117; Dr. Faustus, 117; 
Jew of Malta, 117; Hero and 
Leander, 118 

Marmion, by Scott, 289, 292 

Masefield, John. 401 

Masques, Ben Jonson's, 165 ; 
Milton's Com us, 178, 183, 184 

Muster of Ballantrae, by Steven- 
son, 398 

Maud, by Tennyson, 352, 353, 
356 

Mazeppa, by Byron, 319, 321 

Measure for Measure, by Shake- 
speare, 127, 133 

Melody in English verse, ce- 
sura, 424 ; rime, 424 ; stanza, 

425 ' 

Men and Women, by Browning, 
360 

Merchant of Venice, by Shake- 
speare, 126, 133, 137, 138 

Mercian English, 31, 2>Z 



Meredith, George, his Egoist, 

Richard Fever el and Diana of 

the Crossways, 397 
Merry Wives of Windsor, by 

Shakespeare, 133 
Meter, 423 
Metrical feet, 421 
Metrical Lives of the Saints, 

Middle English, 35 
Middle English before Chaucer, 

32, 34 

Middlemarch, by George Eliot, 

394 

Middleton, Thomas, his The 
Changeling, 167 

Midsummer Night's Dream, by 
Shakespeare, 133 

Mill on the Floss, by George 
Eliot, 394 

Milton, John, " the prophet's 
poet/' 182; portrait of, 175; 
his life, 177 ; his love of the 
beautiful and of liberty, 177 ; 
his blindness, 180; view of his 
cottage at St. Giles, 181 ; dic- 
tating to his daughters, 187 ; 
his poems, 178, 182, 187; prose, 
185 ; sonnets, 186 ; Defensio 
Secunda, 177, 180; Ode on the 
Morning of Christ's Nativity, 
178; On Having Arrived at the 
Age of Twenty-Three, 178; 
Epitaph on the Admirable Dra- 
matic Poet W. Shakespeare, 
178; L Allegro, 178, 182; II 
Peuseroso, 178, 183; Arcades, 
178; Comus, 178, 183; Lycidas, 
178, 184; Divorce, 179; Church 
Government, 179; Education, 
179; Areopagitica, 179, 185; 
Tenure of Kings and Magis- 
trates, 180; Eikonoklastes, 
180; Defensio pro Populo 
Anglicano, 180; Paradise Lost, 
180, 181, 187; Paradise Re- 
gained, 181; Samson Agonis- 
tes, 181 ; De Docirina Chris- 
tiana, 181 

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Bor- 
der, by Scott, 286 

Miracle plays, 106 



Index 



Modem Painters, by Rusk in, 
378, 3&> 

Moll Flanders, by Defoe, 241 

Moore, Thomas, his Irish Melo- 
dies, Lalla Rookh, Life of By- 
ron, 336 

Morality plays, 107 

More, Sir Thomas, portrait of, 
81 ; his Utopia, 81 

Mornings in Florence, by Rus- 
kin, 378 

Morris, William, 396, 405 

Morte Arthure, based on old 
British legends, 40 

Morte Darthur, by Sir Thomas 
Malory, 68; its popularity, 69; 
the last production of the Mid- 
dle Age, 69; book printed by 
Caxton, 69 

Mother Hubberd's Tale, by Ed- 
mund Spenser, 90 

Much Ado About Nothing, by 
Shakespeare, 126, 133 

Murder Considered as One of 
the Fine Arts, by DeQuincey, 
333 

Napoleon, Life of, by Scott, 291 
Narrative poetry, classes of, 410 
Narrative prose, classes of, 415 
New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon, 

152, 153 
Newbolt, Henry, 401 
Newcomes, The, by Thackeray, 

391, 393 
Newman, J. H., 396, 404 
Newspaper, beginning of, 216 
Nicholas Nickleby, by Dickens, 

386 

Nineteenth Century. See Vic- 
torian 1 age. 

Norman Conquest, effect on 
English literature and lan- 
guage, 5, 6, 27, 30, 32, 36, 45 

Novel, development of, in the 
age of Johnson, 243, 259; De- 
foe chief fore-runner of the 
English novelists, 242 ; pio- 
neers, Samuel Richardson and 
Henry Fielding, 259; T. G. 
Smollett and Laurence Sterne, 



261 ; present-day fiction, 399, 

400; the short story, 400; 

characteristics of the novel, 

416 
Novum Organum, by Francis 

Bacon, 151 
Noyes, Alfred, 401 

Octosyllabics, use of, 426 

Ode on Intimations of Immor- 
tality, by Wordsworth, 300, 
304 

Ode on the Duke of Wellington, 
by Tennyson, 352 

Ode to the West Wind, by Shel- 
ley, 324, 325 

Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical 
Polity, by Richard Hooker, 

Old Curiosity Shop, by Dickens, 
386 

Old English language, character- 
istics, 5 ; many dialects, 5 ; ef- 
fect of foreign additions, 6, 7 ; 
disappearance of, as literary 
language, influence of French, 

Old English literature, serious- 
ness of, 8 ; earliest piece of 
writing is Widsith. 15 ; tribal 
limitations, 26 

Old English poetry, secular, 9 ; 
religious, 18; origin of epic 
poems, 9, 15; Beowulf, 9; 
other epics, 15 ; riddles, prov- 
erbs and charms, 17 ; Caed- 
mon, 18; Cynewulf, 19; verse- 
form, 21 

Old English prose, King Alfred 
the father of, 22, 26 . 

Old English verse-form, 21 

Old Fortunatus, by Thomas 
Dekker, 166 

Old Wives* Tale, by George 
Peele, 117 

Oliver Twist, by Dickens, 386 

On a Grecian Urn, by Keats, 
329 

Oration, definition of an, 418 

Orm's Or mul mil, 32, 33 

Orosius, his History. 



Index 



Othello, by Shakespeare, 127, 

133 

Owl and the Nightingale, Mid- 
dle English poem, 34 

Palace of Pleasure, by William 
Paynter, 102, 116 

Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, by 
Samuel Richardson, 260 

Paracelsus, by Browning, 359 

Paradise Lost, by Milton, 180, 
181 ; citations, 187 ; its rank in 
literature, 187 

Paradise Regained, by Milton, 
181 

Past and Present, by Carlyle, 

373, 375 
Pastoral Care, Gregory's, 25 
Pater, Walter, 396, 405 
Paynter, William, his Palace of 

Pleasure, \02 t 116 
Pearl, The, based on old British 

legends, 41 
Peele, George, his Old Wives' 

Tale, 117 
Pendennis, by Thackeray, 391 
Pericles, by Shakespeare, 127, 

133 

Philaster, by Beaumont and 

Fletcher, 167 
Philomela, by Matthew Arnold, 

382 
Piers the Plowman, Vision of, 

43, .44 

Pilgrim's Progress, by John 
Bunyan, 191, 196 

Poetry, classes of, narrative, 
410; lyric, 412; drama, 413; 
idyll, 414 

Pope, age of, called the "Au- 
gustan Age," 216; literature 
associated with politics, 216; 
beginning of newspaper and 
magazine, 216; Jonathan 
Swift, 217; Joseph Addison, 
223 ; Richard Steele, 227 ; 
Alexander Pope, 229; Daniel 
Defoe, 239 

Pope, Alexander, his life, 230; 
portrait, 231 ; his power of 
versification, 230, 235 ; his per- 
fection of the heroic couplet, 



230, 236; discussion of his 
works, 235 ; Essay on Criti- 
cism, 233, 234, 236, 22,7', Rape 
of the Lock, 234, 236; Windsor 
Forest, 234; Translation of the 
Iliad, 234; Essay on Man, 235, 
236; Dunciad, 235, 238 

Posthumous Papers of the Pick- 
wick Club, by Dickens, 386 

Pre-Raphaelites, 376 

Princess, The, by Tennyson, .352, 
353, 356 

Printing, studied by William 
Caxton, his History of Troy 
the first printed English book, 
his press at Westminster, 69 ; 
Earl Rivers presenting his 
book and Caxton to Edward 
IV, picture of, 79 

Prisoner of Chillon, by Byron, 
321 

Prose, classes of, narrative, 415 ; 
prose drama, 417; essay, 417; 
special classes, 418 

Prothalamion, by Edmund Spen- 
ser, 91, 92 

Puritan Age, contrast with Eliz- 
abethan Age, 172; effect of 
Calvinism, 172; civil and relig- 
ious rebellion, 173 ; Puritanism 
had strangling effect on litera- 
ture, 174; Milton, 177; Bun- 
yan, 191 ; other writers, 106 

Quentin Durward, by Scott, 290 

Rabbi Ben Ezra, by Browning, 

361, 363. 
Ralegh, Sir Walter, his poems, 

95 ; his poetical prose, 95, 96 ; 

his History of the World, 96 
Ralph Royster Doyster, first 

English comedy, 108 
Rambler, The, by Samuel John- 
son, 247, 251 
Rape of the Lock, by Pope, 234, 

236 
Rasselas, by Samuel Johnson, 

248, 251 
Reade, Charles, 396, 404 
Renaissance, meaning of term, 



Index 



75 ; no exact limits in time, 75 ; 
revival of learning, 76; dis- 
coveries, 77; Italy, 77) Eng- 
land, 81 
Rcquicscat, by Matthew Arnold, 

^ ... 

Revival of learning, influence of, 

76, 77, 81 ; in Italy, 77^ ; in Eng- 
land, 81 ; effect of inventions 
and discoveries, 78 
Revolt of Islam, by Shelley, 324 
Richard Fever el, by George 

Meredith, 397 
Richard II, by Shakespeare, 133 
Richard III, by Shakespeare, 131, 

133 

Richardson, Samuel, early nov- 
elist, 259; Pamela or Virtue 
Rewarded, 260; Clarissa Har- 
loive, 260; Sir Charles Grandi- 
son, 260 

Riddles, Old English, 17 

Rime, in verse, 424 

Ring and the Book, by Brown- 
ing, 360, 362 

Rob Roy, by Scott, 289 

Robin and Makyne, by Robert 
Henry son, 63 

Robin Hood ballads, 67 

Robinson Crusoe, by Defoe, 239, 
241, 242 

Romance, characteristics of the, 
36, 412, 415 ; influence of Ro- 
. mances on English literature, 
30, 36, 38; subjects for Ro- 
mances, 37, 38 

Eomanticism, beginning of, reac- 
tion against formal life and 
literature of eighteenth cen- 
tury, fore-runners were 
Thomas Gray, William Cow- 
per, and Robert Burns, 264, 
265, 267; Romantic defined, 
280, 281 ; early nineteenth cen- 
tury. Age of Romanticism, of 
" Liberalism in Literature," 
280, 281, 285; its striking char- 
acteristics, 282, 283, 284; the 
Romanticists, Walter Scott, 
285 ; William Wordsworth, 
294 ; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 



305; Charles Lamb, 311; 
George Gordon Noel Byron, 
315; Percy Bysshe Shelley, 
322 ; John Keats, 327 ; Thomas 
DeQuincey, 331; and others, 
335 

Romaunt of the Rose, by Chau- 
cer, 55 

Romeo and Juliet, by Shakes- 
peare, 133, 136, 138 

Romola, by George Eliot, 394 

Rosamond, opera by x\ddison, 
225 

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 396, 405 

Ruined City, Old English poem, 
16 

Ruskin, John, his championship 
of honest labor, 376; portrait, 
376; his life, 377', discussion of 
his works, 380; artistic nature, 
376 ; his power over language, 
380; view of his grave at Con- 
iston, 379; Modern Painters, 
378, 380; Seven Lamps of Ar- 
chitecture, 378; Pre-Raphaelit- 
ism, 378; Stones of Venice, 
378; Lectures in Art, 378; 
Mornings in Florence, 378; St. 
Mark's Rest, 378; Unto This 
Last, 378; Sesame and Lilies, 
378: Crown of Wild Olive, 
378, 380; Fors Clavigera, 378, 
379- 

St Mark's Rest, bv Ruskin, 
378 

Samson Agomstcs, by Milton, 
181 

Sartor Resartus, bv Carlyle, 372, 
375 

Scenes from Clerical Life, by 
George Eliot, 394 

Scholar-Gypsy, The, by Matthew 
Arnold, 382, 383 

Scholemaster, The, by Roger As- 
cham, 83 

Scott, Walter, "the great ro- 
mancer," 285 ; portrait. 287 : 
view of Abbotsford. 290: his 
life, 285 ; the quality of his 
works, 292; Minstrelsy of the 



Index 



Scottish Border, 286; Lay of 
*he Last Minstrel, 286; Mar- 
mion, 289, 292; Lady of the 
Lake, 289, 292; Waverley, 289; 
Rob Roy, 289; Heart of Mid- 
lothian, 289; Ivanhoe, 290; 
Kenilworth, 290; Quentin Dur- 
ward, 290; The Talisman,* 
290; Woodstock, 290; L//V 0/ 
Napoleon, 291 

Scottish poetry in the fifteenth 
century, 63 

Seafarer, Old English poem, 16, 

17 
Sejanus, by Ben Jonson, 164 

Sesame and Lilies, by Ruskin, 

378 

Seven Lamps of Architecture, by 
Ruskin, 378 

Seventeenth Century, character- 
istics, effect of new political at- 
titude on literature, 162 ; Ben 
Jonson and his influence, 
162 ; age of Ben Jonson, 163 ; 
Puritan age, 172; age of Dry- 
den, 198 ; the lyric poets, 
169 

Shakespeare, William, his place 
in literature, 119; universal 
character of his genius, 120; 
his life, 120; personal appear- 
ance, 128; portrait in "First 
Folio " edition, 121 ; character, 
the testimony of Ben Jonson, 
129, 130: his poetry. 99, 130; 
his connection with the thea- 
ter. 124. 126, 127: discussion 
of his plays, 131 ; the Baconian 
theory, 132 

Shakespeare's plays, discussion 
of, 131 ; the Baconian theory, 
132; list of his plays, 133; his 
first period, 134; second pe- 
riod, 136; third period, 138; 
fourth period, 142 ; summary 
of his work, 144; All's Well 
that Ends Well, 127, 133; 
Antony and Cleopatra, 127, 
133; As You Like It, 133, 138; 
Comedy of Errors, 131, 133, 
124. 135, 136, 138; Coriolanus, 



127, 133; Cymbcline, 127, 133; 
Hamlet, 127, 133, 138, 139, 140; 
Henry IV, 126, 133; Henry 
V, 126, 133, 137; Henry VI, 
133, 134; Henry VIII, 127, 
133; Julius CcEsar, 127, 133, 
137, 138; King John, 133; 
Lear, 127, 133; Love's La- 
bour 's Lost, 133, 136; Macbeth, 
127, 133, 138, 139, 140; Meas- 
ure for Measure, i2j, .133; 
Merchant of Venice, 126, 133. 
137, 138; Merry Wives of 
Windsor, 133; Midsummer 
Night's Dream, 133; Much 
Ado About Nothing, 126, 133; 
Othello, i2j, 133; Pericles, 127, 
133; Richard II, 133; Richard 
III, 131/ 133; Romeo and 
Juliet, 133, 136, 138; Taming 
of the Shrew f 133 ; Tempest, 
The, 127. 133, 143; Timon of 
Athens, 127, 133; Titus An- 
dronicus, 131, 133. 135; Troilus 
and Cressida, 133; TzcelftJi 
Night, 133; Tzoo Gentlemen of 
Verona, 133: Tico Xoble Kins- 
men, 127, 133; Winter's Tale, 

127, 133. 

She Stoops to Conquer, by 
Oliver Goldsmith, 254, 256 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 322 ; his 
life, 2^3 i portrait, 323 ; discus- 
sion of his works, 325 ; picture 
of book found in his pocket 
when he was drowned, 325 ; 
Alastor, 324; Revolt of Islam, 
324; Hymn to Intellectual 
Beauty, 324; Prometheus Un- 
bound, 324; Adonais, 324, 326, 
327; Ode to the West Wind, 
324, 325; To a Skylark, 324, 
326: Arethusa, 324 

Shepheard's Calendar, by Ed- 
mund Spenser, his first impor- 
tant work, 89, 92 

Sherwood Forest, views of, 65, 
66 

Shoemaker's Holiday, by 
Thomas Dekker, 166 

Short story, largely developed 



Index 



by Stevenson, 400; character- 
istics of the, 416 

Sidney, Sir Philip, picture of his 
death, 98; his Astrophel and 
Stella sonnets, 97 ; Apologie 
for Poetrie, 97; Arcadia, 98, 
100, 145 

Silas Marner, by George Eliot, 

394, 395 

Sir Charles Grandison, by Sam- 
uel Richardson, 260 

Sir Patrick Spens, ballad, 67 

Sir Roger de Coverley, in The 
Spectator, by Addison, 228, 
243, 259 

Sir Tristrem, based on old Brit- 
ish legends, 40 

Sketches by Boz, by Dickens, 
386 

Smollett, Tobias George, his 
Humphrey Clinker, 261 

Sohrab and Rustum, Matthew 
Arnold, 382, 383 

Sonnet, introduced into English 
literature by Thomas Wyatt 
and Henry Howard, Earl of 
Surrey, 83 ; characteristics of 
the, 429 

Sordello, by Browning, 359 

Sou they, Robert, his Curse of 
Kehama, 335 ; Life of Nelson, 
336; History of the Peninsular 
War, 336 

Spectator, The, Addison's writ- 
. ings in, 225, 228 

Spencer, Herbert, 396, 405 

Spenser, Edmund, " the poet's 
poet," 88; his life, 89; por- 
trait of, 90; his first important 
work, The Shepheard's Cal- 
endar, 89, 92; The Faerie 
Queen, 89, 90, 92, 93, 95; Colin 
Clout's Come Home Again, 
90 ; Rpithalamion 3 90, 92 ; 
Mother Hnbberd's Tale, 90; 
Prothalamion, 91, 92; View of 
the Present State of Ireland, 

Spenserian stanza, 429 
State of Innocence, by John Dry- 
den, 203 



Statue and the Bust, by Brown- 
ing, 360 

Steele, Richard, portrait of, 228; 
The Tatler and The Spectator., 
227, 228 

Stephen, Leslie, 396, 405 

Sterne, Laurence, his Tristram 
Shandy, 261 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, por- 
trait of, 398; his Treasure 
Island, Kidnapped, and Master 
of Ballantrae, 398; his devel- 
opment of the short story after 
French models, 400 

Stoke Poges churchyard, the 
scene of Gray's Elegy, 
263 

Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, 

4 

Stones of Venice, by Ruskin, 378 

Stratford, Shakespeare's birth- 
place, views of, 123, 124, 128 

Sublime and the Beautiful, by 
Edmund Burke, 257 

Surrey, Earl of. See Howard, 
Henry 

Suspiria de Profundis, by De- 
Quincey, 333 

Swift, Jonathan, his life, 217; 
portrait, 220 ; his character, 
218; discussion of his works. 
221 ; Battle of the Books, 218, 
222; Tale of a Tub, 218; Gul- 
liver's Travels, 220, 222; his 
prose style, 223 

Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 
charm of his poetry, 397 ; 
Atalanta in Calydon, 30/6, 
397 



Tale of a Tub, by Jonathan 

Swift, 218 
Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens. 

389 
Tale, use of term, 412 
Talisman, The, by Scott. 290 
Tarn O'Shanter, by Robert 

Burns, 270 
Tamburlainc, by Christopher 

Marlowe, 117, 118 



Index 



Taming of the Shrew, by Shake- 
speare, 133 

Tatler, The, Addison's writings 
in, 225, 228 

Taylor, Jeremy, 196; portrait of, 
197; his Holy Living and Holy 
Dying, 197 

Tempest, The, by Shakespeare, 
127, 133, 143 

Tennyson, Alfred, most repre- 
sentative poet of Victorian 
age, 348; his life, 348; discus- 
sion of his works, 353; por- 
trait of, 349; Carlyle's descrip- 
tion of him, 351; his poetry 
reflects thought of his age, 
353 ; his love of the classics, 
357; his descriptive skill, 356; 
In Memoriam, 348, 352, 354; 
early poems, 351; The Prin- 
cess, 352, 353, 356; Ode on the 
Duke of Wellington, 352; 
Maud, 352, 353, 356; Idylls of 
the King, 352, 353; Enoch 
Arden, 352 ; his dramas, 353 ; 
Crossing the Bar, 353, 356; 
Locksley Hall Sixty Years 
After, 353; The Making of 
Man, 355 

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 
portrait, 390; his life, 391; 
discussion of his works, 392 ; 
view of his gra^e, Kensal 
Green, 392 ; makes fun of so- 
ciety, 390; Book of Snobs, 
391; Vanity Fair, 391, 393; 
Pendennis, 391 ; Henry Es- 
mond, 391, 392; The New- 
comes, 391, 393 ; The English 
Humourists, 391 ; The Four 
Georges, 391 ; The Virginians, 
39 1 < 392 

Theater, Elizabethan, 103; draw- 
ings of, 104, 112, 142; first 
theater built, no; description 
of buildings, 104, in, 112; 
scenery, costumes and actors, 
113, 142 

Thompson, Francis, 401 

Three Ravens, ballad, 67 



Timber, or Discoveries Made 
upon Men and Matter, by Ben 
Jonson, 165 

Tim on of Athens, by Shake- 
speare, 127, 133 

Titus Andronicus, by Shake- 
speare, 131, 133, 135 

To a Nightingale, by Keats, 330, 

33i 
To a Skylark, by Shelley, 324, 

326 
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars, 

by Richard Lovelace, 170 
Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding, 

260, 261 
TotteTs Miscellany, 84 
Toxophilus, by Roger Ascham, 

8 3 

Traveller, .The, by Oliver Gold- 
smith, 254 

Treasure Island, bv Stevenson, 
398 

Tristram Shandy, by Laurence- 
Sterne, 261 

Troilus and Creseyde, by Chau- 
cer, 56, 58 

Troilus and Cressida, by Shake- 
speare, 133 

Trollope, Anthony, 396, 404 

Twelfth Night, by Shakespeare, 
133 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, by 
Shakespeare, 133 

Two Noble Kinsmen, by Shake- 
speare, 127, 133 

Tyndale, William, his translation 
of the Bible, 82; his martyr- 
dom, 82 

Unto This Last, by Ruskin, 378 
Utopia, by Sir Thomas More, 81 

Vanity Fair, by Thackeray, 391, 

393 . 
Versailles, Gardens at, view of, 

215 
Verse, accent, 421 ; kinds of met- 
rical feet, 421 ; meter, 423 ; 
melody, 424; kinds of verse, 
425 



Ind 



ex 



Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver 
Goldsmith, 252, 254, 255 

Victorian age, its chief charac- 
teristics, 342 ; influence of 
commercial prosperity and ad- 
vancement of science, 343, 344; 
an age of prose, 344, 347; its 
poetry, 347 ; Alfred Tennyson, 
348; Robert Browning, 357; 
Thomas B. Macaulay, 364; 
Thomas Carlyle, 368; John 
Ruskin, 376; Matthew Arnold, 
381 ; Charles Dickens, 385 ; 
William M. Thackeray, 390; 
George Eliot, 393 ; other writ- 
ers, 396 

View of the Present State of 
Ireland, by Edmund Spenser, 

9 l . . 

Virginians } The, by Thackeray, 

391, 392 
Vision of Piers the Plowman, 

43,44 
Vol pone, or the Fox, by Ben 

Jonson, 164 
Voyages and Travels of Sir John 

Mandeville, Middle English, 
, 35 

Wace's Brut d'Angleterre, S3 
Walton, Isaac, portrait of, 198; 

his Compleat Angler, 198 
Wanderer, Old English poem, 

16, 20 



Watson, William, 401 

Waver ley novels, by Scott, 289 

Webster, John, his The Duchess 
of Malii, 168 

Wells, H. G., 400 

Westminster Abbey, poets' cor- 
ner in, 345 

Whitby Abbey, view of, 18 

Wiclif, John, " the Morning Star 
of the Reformation," his life, 
42; his portrait, 42; his Trans- 
lation of the Bible. 43 

Widsith, earliest piece of Old 
English writing, 15, 27 

Wife of Usher's Well, ballad, 67 

Winter's Tale, by Shakespeare, 
127, 133 

Woman Killed with Kindness, A f 
by Thomas Heywood, 167 

Woodstock, by Scott, 290 

Wordsworth, William, " poet of 
nature," 294; portrait, 295; 
view of Dove Cottage, Gras- 
mere, 300; discussion of his 
poetry, 301 ; Michael, Resolu- 
tion and Independence, Ode to 
Duty, 300; Ode on Intimations 
of Immortality, 300, 304; Lao- 
damia, and Dion, 300; The 
Prelude and The Excursion, 
300; Lyrical Ballads, 300, 
301 

Wyatt, Thomas, introduced son- 
net into English literature, 83 



INDEX 



A Connecticut Yankee in King 

Arthur's Court, by Mark 

Twain, 508 
A Fable for Critics, by Lowell, 

488 
A Little Book of Western J'crse, 

by Eugene Field, 514 
A Passionate Pilgrim, by Henry 

James, 510 
A Week on the Concord and 

Merrimac Rivers, by Henry D. 

Thoreau, 477 
Adams. John, 451, 467 
Addison, Joseph. 442, 445 
Adventures of Huckleberry 

Finn, The, by Mark Twain, 

5°7 

Afterwhiles, by James \\ hitcomb 

Riley, 514 
A I Araaf. by Poe. 465 
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, author 

of, Story of a Bad Boy, Mar- 

iorie Daw, etc., 511 
American Flag, The. by Joseph 

Rodman Drake, 460 
American Philosophical Society, 

founded by Franklin, 451 
American Scholar, The, by Em- 
erson, 474 
Among My Books, by Lowell, 

488 
Annabel Lee, by Poe, 465 
Autobiography, by Benjamin 

Franklin, 451, 452 
Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 

The, by Oliver Wendell 

Holmes, 492 

Barbara Frietchie, by Whittier, 

486 
Barefoot Boy, The, by Whittier, 

486 



Battle Hymn of the Republic, 
by Julia Ward Howe, quoted, 

493 

Bedouin Song, by Bayard Tay- 
lor, 495 

Belfry of Bruges, The, by Long- 
fellow. 482 

Bibliographical lists: from the 
Colonial period to period of 
Romanticists, 468-470; age of 
Longfellow, 499-501 ; age of 
Longfellow to present day. 518 

Biglow Papers, by Lowell, 488, 
490, 491 

Bloody Tenet, The, by Roger 
Williams, 444 

Blythedale Romance, The, by 
Hawthorne, 480 

Bracebridge Halt, by Irving, 485 

Bradford, William, author of 
History of Plimoth Plantation, 

443 

Bradstreet. Anne, first New Eng- 
land poet, 444 

Bridge, The, by Longfellow. 482 

Brook Farm Colony, 473 

Brown, Charles Brockden. au- 
thor of Edgar Huntly, or 
Memoirs of a Sleep Walker, 

455 
Bryant, William Cullen, as a Ro- 
manticist, 460; life of, 460; 
portrait of, 460; editor of New 
York Evening Post, 461; his 
To a Waterfowl, The Yellozv 
Violet, Thajiatopsis, Forest 
Hymn, 461 : his Evening Wind, 
To a Fringed Gentian, 462; 
translator of Homer's Iliad 
and Odyssey. 462 : his place 
among writers of blank verse, 
462 



Index 



Bunker Hill Oration, by Daniel 

Webster, 467 
Burke, Edmund, 448 
Burns, Robert, 486 
Burroughs, John, naturalist, 512; 

his Locusts and Wild Honey, 

512; his portrait, 513 
Bunyan, John, 447, 452 
Byron, 460 

Cable, George W., 516 

Casey s Tabble Dote, by Eugene 
Field, 514 

Carlyle, Thomas, Emerson's 
friendship with, 474 

Cawein, Madison, 516 

Chambered Nautilus, The, by 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 492 

Chapman, John J., 516 

Choate, Rufus, 467 

Churchill, Winston, 516 

Clay, Henry, 467 

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne 
(Mark Twain), one of Amer- 
ica's greatest humorists, 506- 
509; his portrait, 506; quality 
of his humor, 506 ; life of, 506 ; 
on The Enterprise, 507 ; his 
lumping Frog, The Innocents 
Abroad, Roughing It, Tom 
Sawyer, The Prince and the 
Pauper, Life on the Missis- 
sippi, Adventures of Huckle- 
berry Finn, 507 ; his financial 
troubles, 507; his Connecticut 
Yankee in King Arthurs 
Court, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 
Joan of Arc, and The Man 
That Corrupted Hadleyburg, 
508 ; lights on his literary 
characteristics, 509 

Colonial period, 441 ; Wiggles- 
worth, 444; Cotton Mather, 
445; Jonathan Edwards, 446, 
447; John Woolman, 447, 
448; Thomas Jefferson, 454 

Concord group, the, 475-480 

Concord Hymn, The, by Emer- 
son, 475-477 



Conduct of Life, The, by Emer- 
son, 475 

Conquest of Granada, by Wash- 
ington Irving, 456 

Conquest of Mexico, The, by 
Prescott, 492 

Conquest of Peru, The, by Pres- 
cott, 492 

Constitutional Convention, The, 

451 
Continental Congress, 451 
Cooper, James Fenimore, au- 
thor of Leather stocking Tales, 
iMst of the Mohicans, The 
Spy, The Pilot, The Red 
Rover, 455 ; compared with 
Scott, 456 
Courtship of Miles Standish, 

The, by Longfellow, 482 
Cowper, 460 

Crawford, F. Marion, 516 
Crayon Miscellanies, by Irving, 

458 

Critical Period of American His- 
tory, by John Fiske, 512 
Crothers, Samuel McC, 516 
Culprit Fay, The, by Joseph 
Rodman Drake, 466 

Daisy Miller, by Henry James, 

5io 
Davis, Richard Harding, 516 
Day of Doom, by Michael Wig- 

glesworth, 444 
Deacon's Masterpiece, or the 

Wonderful " One-Hoss Shay/ > 

The, by Holmes, 492 
Declaration of Independence, 

45 1 1 454 
Dickinson, Emily, poetic power 

of, 493, 494 
Drake, Joseph Rodman, author 

of The American Flag and 

The Culprit Fay, 460 
Dryden, John, 442, 445 
Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 516 



Each and All, by Emerson, 475 



Ind 



ex 



Early American literature, 439, 

Ecclesiastical History of JSi ezv 
England, by Cotton Mather, 

445 

Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a 
Sleep Walker, by Charles 
Brockden Brown, 455 

Edwards, Jonathan, life of, 445 \ 
greatest of theologians of the 
Colonial period, 446; his Free- 
dom of the Will quoted, 446, 

447 
Elizabethan language of Ameri- 
can literature, 442 
Elsie Venner, by Holmes, 492 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 473 ; his 
life, 474: his portrait, 474; his 
American Scholar, Essays, 
Representative Men, English 
Traits, Conduct of Life, 474; 
editor of The Dial, 474; his 
poems. The Rhodora, Each 
and All, The Snow-Storm, 
The Problem, Astrcea, Give 
All to Love, Threnody, Wor- 
ship, Concord Hymn, 475, 476; 
his idealism as revealed in his 
essays, 476; quotation from 
Self -Reliance, 477 
English Traits, by Emerson, 474 
Eternal Goodness, by Whittier, 

486 
Evangeline, by Longfellow, 482 
Evening Wind, by Bryant, 462 
Everett, Edward, 467, 493 

Fall of the House of Usher, The, 
by Poe, 466. 

Farwell Address, by George 
Washington, 453 

Federalist, The, 454 

Field, Eugene, author of A Lit- 
tle Book of Western Verse, 
Second Book of Verse, Little 
Boy Blue, Casey's Tabble Dote, 
etc., 514 

First Series, by Lowell, 488 

Fiske, John, his Critical Period 



of American History, 512 

Fitch, Clyde, 516 

Fool's Prayer, The, by E. Row- 
land Sill, 495 

Ford, Paul Leicester, 516 

Forest Hymn, by Bryant, 461 

Four Million, The, by Sidney 
Porter (O. Henry), 511 

Franklin, Benjamin, greatest 
writer of Revolutionary pe- 
riod, 449; starts Pennsylvania 
Gazette, 449; founds Philadel- 
phia library, 449; portrait of, 
450; his life, 450-453; begins 
publication Poor Richard's Al- 
manac, 451 ; his power in sci- 
ence and statesmanship, 450; 
his Autobiography, 451; other 
works, 452 ; letter to Washing- 
ton, 452, 453 

Freedom of the Will, The, by 
Jonathan Edwards, 446; quota- 
tion from, 446, 447 

Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, 516 

Freneau, Philip, The Indian 
Burying Ground, 460 

Frost, Robert, 516 

Garland, Hamlin, 516 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 486 
General History of Virginia, 
The, by Captain John Smith, 

443. 444 
Gettysburg Address, by Lincoln. 

498, 499 
Gilder, Richard Watson, 516 
Give All to Love, bv Emerson, 

475 

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 
by Lafcadio Hearn, 513 

Godwin, William, 455 

Gold Bug, The, by Poe, 466 

Golden Bozvl, The, by Henry 
James, 511 

Golden Legend, The, by Long- 
fellow, 482 

Gray, Thomas. 460 

Great Divide, The, by William 
Vaughn Moody, 5 T 5 



Index 



Hale, Edward Everett, his Man 
Without a Country, 493 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, famous for 
his Marco Boccaris, 460 

Hamilton, Alexander, his Fed- 
eralist papers, 454, 467 

Harris, Joel Chandler. " Uncle 
Remus," 511 

Harte. Bret, his place among 
short story writers, 504: his 
life, 504: his Luck of Roaring 
Camp, Tales of the Argonauts. 
Outcasts of Poker Flat, and 
Tennessee's Partner, 504, 505 ; 
his literary characteristics, 505 

Harvard College, early view of, 

443 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 478-480; 
classed with Irving as writer 
of tales, 478; his life, 479; his 
House of the Seven Gables, 
Bly the dale Romance, Marble 
Faun, 480; characteristics of 
his work, 480 
Hay, John, 512, 516 
Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 495 
Hearn. Lafcadio, author of 
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. 

Heartsease and Rue, bv Lowell, 

489 

Henry, O.. 502. See Sidney 
Porter 

Henry. Patrick, 467 

Hiawatha, by 1 Longfellow. 482, 
484 

History of Plimoth Plantation, 
by William Bradford, 443 

History of the United Nether- 
lands, by Motley, 493 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 491, 
492: the New England humor- 
ist, 491 ; his Old Ironsides, 491 ; 
quotation from his Chambered 
Nautilus, 492; his Deacon's 
Masterpiece, or the Wonderful 
" One -H oss Shay/' 492: his 
Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
Table, Professor at the Break- 
fast-Table. Poet at the Break- 



fast-Table, and Elsie Venner, 
492 

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, 
translated by Bryant. 462 

House of Seven Gables, picture 
of, 479 

House of the Seven Gables, The, 
by Hawthorne. 480 

Hovey. Richard, 516 

Howe, Julia Ward, author of 
Battle Hymn of the Republic, 
493 

Howells. William Dean, his dis- 
tinguished place in American 
letters. 509; his portrait, 510; 
his Rise of Silas Lapham, most 
typical novel of American life. 
510; his reaction against Ro- 
manticism, 510 

Hyperion, by Longfellow. 482 

Ichabod, by Whittier. 487 
/;/ Schooldays, by Whittier. 486 
Independence Hall, view of. 448 
Indian Burying Ground, The, by 

Philip Freneau. 460 
Innocents Abroad, by Mark 

Twain, 507 
Irving, Washington, his literary 
accomplishments, 456 ; his life, 
456: his Sketch Book, Con- 
quest of Granada, Life of 
Goldsmith. 456: Salmagundi, 
Knickerbockers History of 
Nezv York, 457: his Brace- 
bridge Hall, Life of Washing- 
ton, Alhambra, Crayon Mis- 
cellanies, 458; picture of his 
home, " Sunnyside," 457 ; quot- 
ed, 459 

James, Henry, 510, 511: his 
place among novelists, 510: his 
Passionate Pilgrim, Roderick 
Hudson, and Daisy Miller. 
510; his complicated style, 511 : 
his Wings of a Dove, The 
Golden Bowl, 511 ; growth of 
his mannerisms, 511 

Jay, John, 451 



Inde: 



Jefferson, Thomas, 499 ; " Author 
of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence," 454; his First In- 
augural, 454, 472 

Jewett, Sarah Orne, 516 

Joan of Arc, by Mark Twain, 
508 

Johnson, Robert Underwood, 516 

Johnson, Samuel, 452 

Journal, by H. I). Thoreau, 477, 
478 

Journal, by John \\ oolman, 447, 
448. 

Jumping Frog, The, by Mark 
Twain, 507 

Kant, 473 

Kavanagh, by Longfellow, 482 

Keats, John, 462, 466 

Key, Francis Scott, author of 
The Star-Spangled Banner, 460 

King Robert of Sicily, by Long- 
fellow, 482 

Knickerbocker's History of New 
York, by Irving, 457 

Lanier, Sidney, author of Tampa 
Rob iiis, The Song of the Chat- 
tahoochee, The Marshes of 
Glynn, 495 

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by 
Irving, 459 

Life of Goldsmith, by Irving, 456 

Life of Washington, by Irving, 
458 

Life on the Mississippi, by Mark 
Twain, 507 

Lincoln, Abraham, his mastery 
of prose, 497; his Gettysburg 
Address, 498, 499; picture of 
his birthplace, 492; his stamp 
of humor. 503 

Lindsay, Vachell, 516 

Little Boy Blue, by Eugene Field, 

514 
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 516 
London, Jack, 516 
Locusts and Wild Honey, by 

John Burroughs, 512 
Longfellow, Age of, 471 ; stimu- 



lating forces at work at that 
time 471 ; Xew England group 
time, 471 ; Xew England group 
Transcendentalists, 472 

Longfellow, Henry VVadsworth, 
464, 480-484 ; most command- 
ing figure of middle nineteenth 
century, 480; criticism of his 
poetry, 481 . his Outre-Mer, 
Voices of the Night, 481 ; Hy- 
perion and Kavanagh, his .nov- 
els, 482; his Evangeline, Gold- 
en Legend, Hiawatha, Court- 
ship of Miles Standish. Belfry 
of Bruges, Tales of a Wayside 
Inn, and shorter poems, 482 ; 
causes of his literary popu- 
larity, 483, 484 

Lowell, James Russell, 487-491 ; 
his rank among American 
poets, 487 ; his Vision of Sir 
Launfal, 487, 489; life of, 488; 
portrait of, 488; his Biglow 
Papers, First Series, A Fable 
for Critics, Among My Books, 
My Study Windows, Hearts- 
ease and Rue, 488, 489 ; cita- 
tions from his works, 490, 491 ; 
his gifts as an essayist, 491 

Luck of Roaring Camp, The, by 
Bret Harte, 504, 505 



Mackaye, Percy, 516, 517 
Magnolia Christi Americana, or 
Ecclesiastical History of New 
England, by Cotton Mather, 
445 
Man That Corrupted Hadlcy 
burg, The, by Mark Twain, 508 
Man with the Hoe, The, by Ed- 
win Markham, 515 
Man Without a Country, The, by 

Hale, 493 
Marble Faun, The, by Haw- 
thorne, 480 
Marco Bozzaris, by Halleck, 460 
Marjorie Daw, by Aldrich, 511 
Mark Twain. See Clemens 
Markham, Edwin, 514, 515 



Index 



Marshes of Glynn, The, by Sid- 
ney Lanier, 495 

Masque of Judgment, The, by 
W. V. Moody, 515 

Mather, Cotton, 440; his Mag- 
nolia Christi Americana, 445;" 
life of, 445 

Mather, Increase, 445 

Mather, Richard, 443, 445 

Mitchell, S. Weir, 516 

Minute Man, Concord Bridge, 
438 

Montcalm and Wolfe, by Park- 
man, 493 

Moody, William Vaughn, author 
of Ode in Time of Hesitation, 
The Masque of Judgment, and 
The Great Divide, 515 

More, Paul Elmer, 516 

Mosses from an Old Manse, by 
Hawthorne, 479 

.Motion pictures, influence of, on 
literature, 503, 504 

Motley, John Lothrop, his Rise 
of the Dutch Republic, and 
History of the United X ether- 
lands, 493 

Murders in the Rue Morgue, by 
Poe, 466 

My Study Windows, by Lowell, 
488, 489 

My Summer in a Garden, by 
Warner, 493, foot-note 

New Poetry, 503 
New York in 1667, picture of, 
441 

Ode in Time of Hesitation, by 
William V. Moody, 515 

Old Clock on the Stair, by Long- 
fellow, 482 

Old Ironsides, by Holmes, 492 

Old Swimmin Hole, The, by 
Riley, 514 

Oregon Trail, The, by Parkman, 

493 

Otis. James. 467 

Outcasts of Poker Flat, The, by 
Bret Harte, 505 



Outre-Mer, by Longfellow, 481 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 516 

Parkman, Francis, author of The 
Oregon Trail, Montcalm and 
Wolfe, 493 

Peabody, Josephine Preston 
(Mrs. A larks), 516 

Phillips, Wendell/ 493 

Pit and the Pendulum, The, by 
Poe, 466 

Poe, Edgar Allan, the Roman- 
ticist, 463 ; life of, 463 ; portrait 
of, 464; his Tamerlane and 
Other Poems, 463-465 ; The 
Raven, 464; attitude of public 
toward his work, 465; his An- 
nabel Lee, A I Araaf, To Helen, 
465 ; his Fall of the House of 
Usher, The Gold Bug, The Pit 
and the Pendulum, The Mur- 
ders in the Rue Morgue, 466; 
his influence upon French let- 
ters, 466 

Poet at the Breakfast-Table, The 
by Holmes, 492 

Poets, first good American poets, 
460-466 

Poor Richard's Almanac, pub- 
lished by Franklin, 450, 452 

Porter, Sidney (O. Henry) 1 au- 
thor of The Four Million, 
Roads to Destiny, etc., 511, 5T2 

Prescott. William H., author of 
The Conquest of Mexico and 
The Conquest of Peru, 402 

Prince and the Pauper, The, by 
Mark Twain, 507 

Problem, The, by Emerson, 475 

Professor at the Break fast -Table, 
The, by Holmes, 492 

Psalm of Life, bv Longfellow, 
482 

Puddnhcad Wilson, by Mark 
Twain, 508 

Puritans, literature of New Eng- 
land, 443-447 

Reply to Hayne, by Webster, 
467, 468 



Index 



Repplier, Agnes, 516 

Revolutionary period, 448-454 ; 
characteristics of, 448; Frank- 
lin, greatest writer of, 449; 
poets of, 453 

Rhodora, The, by Emerson, 475 

Riley, James Whitcomb, author 
of The Old Swimmin Hole, 
Afterwhiles, etc., 514; his por- 
trait, 514 

Rip Van Winkle, by Washington 
Irving, 459 

Rise of Silas Lap ham, The, by 
Howells, 510 

Rise of the Dutch Republic, by 
Motley, 493 

Roads to Destiny, by O. Henry, 

5ii 
Robinson, Edwin A., 516 
Roderick Hudson, by Henry 

James, 510 
Romanticism, its echo in Amer- 
ica, 455 ; orators of period of, 
467 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 512 
Roughing It, by Mark Twain, 

507 
Romanticists, The, 455-467 

Salem Witchcraft, 445 

Salmagundi, 457 

Scarlet Letter, The, by Haw- 
thorne, 479 

Second Book of Verse, by Eu- 
gene Field, 514 

Self -Reliance, by Emerson, 474 

Sheldon, Edward, 516 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 463 

Short story, causes of American 
vogue of, 504 

Sill, Edward Rowland, his The 
Fool's Prayer, 494, 495 

Simms, William Gilmore, author 
of Yemasee, 495 

Sketch Book, by Irving, 456 

Smith, Captain John, 443 ; his 
General History of Virginia, 

443 
Snozvbound, by Whittier, 484, 
486, 487 



Snow-Storm, The, by Emerson, 

475 
Sony of the Camp, by Bayard 

Taylor, 495 
Sony of the Chattahoochee, by 

Sidney Lanier, 495 
Star-Spang led Banner, The, by 

Francis Scott Key, 460 
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 516 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 493 
Story of a Bad Boy, by Aldrich, 

5ii 
Sumner, Charles, 467 
41 Sunnyside," picture of, 457 
Swift, Jonathan, 442, 445 

Tabb, John B., 516 

Tales of a Traveller, by Irving, 
458 

Tales of a Wayside Inn, by 
Longfellow, 482 

Tales of the Argonauts, by Bret 
Harte, 504 

Tamerlane and Other Poems, by 
Poe, 463, 465 

Tampa Robins, by Sidney La- 
nier, 495 

Tarkington, Booth, 516, 517 

Taylor, Bayard, author of Bed- 
ouin Song, The Song of the 
Camp, translator of Goethe's 
Faust, 495 

Tennessee's Partner, by Bret 
Harte, 505 

Thau at op sis, by Bryant, 462, 463 

Thomas, Augustus, 516 

Thoreau, Henry David, most lit- 
eral of the Transcendentalists, 
477 ; quoted, 477 : best known 
works, 477, 478 ; passages 
from his Journal, 478 

Threnody, by Bryant, 475 

Timrod, Henry, 495 

To a Fringed Gentian, by Bry- 
ant, 462 

To a Waterfowl, by Bryant, 46T. 
462 

To Helen, by Poe, 465 

Transcendentalists, the, 472; 
meaning of the term " Tran- 



Index 



scendentalism," 472 ; Amos 
Bronson Alcott, 473; influence 
of Transcendentalism on Em- 
erson and Thoreau, 473 ; Tho- 
reau most literal of, 477 
Twain, Mark. See Clemens 

Uncle Remus, bv Joel Chandlei 

Harris, 511 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet 

Beecher Stowe, 493 
University of Pennsylvania, 

founded by Franklin, 451 

Van Dyke, Henry, 516 

Victorian Age, 471 

Vision of Sir Launfal. by Low- 
ell, 487, 489, 490 

Voices of the Night, by Long- 
fellow, 481 

iValden, by Thoreau, 477 
Warner, Charles Dudley. 493 
Washington, George, his Fare- 
well Address, 453 
Webster, Daniel, his Bunker 
Hill Oration, 467 ; Reply to 
Hayne, 467; arraigned by 
Whittier, 487 
Wharton, Edith, author of 
Ethan Frome, The Valley of 
Decision, The Fruit of the 
Tree, 51 1 
Whitman, Walt. 440, 496, 497: 
irregularity of his genius. 496; 
his portrait, 496: his Captain! 
My Captain! 497; extract 
from Manahatta, 497 



Whittier, John Greenleaf, 464. 
484-487 ; the message of his 
poems, 484; his life. 485. 486; 
picture of his homestead, 485; 
Lloyd Garrison's influence on 
his life, 486; his Snowbound, 
484, 486. 487: his Eternal 
Goodness. The Barefoot Boy, 
In Schooldays, Barbara Friet- 
chie, 486; his Ichabnd, 487; 
criticism of his Snowbound, 
487 

V igglesworth. Michael, author 
of The Day of Doom, 444 

Williams, Roger, author of The 
Bloody Tenet, 443 

Wilson, Woodrow. 516 

Wings of a Dove, The, by 
Henry James. 511 

Winning of the West, The, by 
Roosevelt, 512 

Winter. William, 516 

Winthrop. John, 443 

Wister, Owen, 516 

W r oodberry, George E.. 516 

Woolman, John, life of. 447; ex- 
tract from his Journal. 447. 
448 

V ordsworth, W r illiam, 462, 472, 

474 
Worship, by Emerson, 475 
Wreck of the Hesperus, the, by 

Longfellow, 482 

Yellow Violet, The, by William 

Cull en Bryant, 461 
Yemasee, by William Gilmore 

Simms, 444 



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